DEDICATION.To my dear little Nieces, LucY and EDITHTAI, is this book dedicated, in the hope that theywill be as much interested in reading the Stories theywill find in it, as they, and many other littlechildren, have been in nearing them told by wordof mouthE. S.THE PALACE, FULHAM.Julj, 18G4.

ROSE AND KATE.CHAPTER I." EAR aunt, may Kate and I come and sit withSyou this afternoon ? it is so very wet we cannotgo out, and Miss Jones is gone with sister Susan intotown, and has left us each a long piece of work to dobefore she comes back to tea. It is so gloomy and sadin the schoolroom by ourselves, and we thought thatperhaps you would have us, and tell us some storiesand talk to us whilst we work. Are you very busy ""Well, dears," said Aunt Emma, "I am ratherbusy, for I had intended writing many letters thiswet afternoon, but I cannot find it in my heart torefuse your request; and so you may come, and I willwrite my letters another day.""Oh, thank you darling aunty," said little lovingRosie. " Come, Katie, let us go and fetch our work,and we will be back with you in a minute."So off they ran; and when they returned, they eachgot a stool and sat down, work in hand, looking veryhappy and very cosy, at Aunt Emma's feet.B

2 ROSE AND KATE." Oh, how nice this is, Aunt Emma " said Rose;"and what will you tell us about ? "" What should you like, dears V" said Aunt Emma."Oh!" answered Katie, "tell us about thatlittle girl Mary, whom you loved so much, and thefunny things she used to say; we often talk abouther, and about her love for the angels. Aunty, wasshe ever naughty ? "" Oh yes, love; because all little girls are naughtysometimes, and big ones too; and they find it veryhard to be obedient, and industrious, and good-tempered. This child Mary, when she was aboutsix years old-- ""And that is just as old as I am," interruptedKatie."Don't talk, Katie !" said Rose. " Go on, dearaunty-what did she do ? ""She had a little brother, called Johnnie; he wasonly two years old then, and one day his mother tookhim out into the garden: she had not been theremany minutes before she was called away; but shedid not go till she had said to Mary, who was also inthe garden, playing about very busily, 'Mary, takecare of Johnnie till I come back, and don't let himhurt himself.' 'Very well, mamma,' said Mary; butshe was so busy making a daisy-chain, that she verysoon forgot all about little Johnnie. His mother wasaway five minutes; when she came back she said toMary, Where's Johnnie for she could not see herlittle boy anywhere. 'I don't know, mamma,' saidMary; I thought he was on the grass.' But he was

"WHERE'S JOIINNIE 3not on the grass or in the garden : mamma could notfind him anywhere, nor could Mary for a little while,and then Mary called out, Here he is, mamma, allquite right!' Mamma went at once, guided by.SMary's voice, and found little Johnnie up some steps,leading to an old garden-house, laughing and smiling,and very unsafe; so she took him up in her arms andcarried him down the stairs, and then she said toMary, with a very grave voice, 'Mary, I am verymuch astonished and very much displeased that youtook so little care of your brother when I left him inyour charge; it will be a very long time before Itrust you again-he might have fallen down thosestairs, and been seriously hurt. You have caused himto give me a great fright.' But, mamma,' said Mary,'why were you so frightened? you know he has hisguardian angel to take care of him. I knew he wouldbe quite safe.'"". What a funny little girl to say that " exclaimedRose. "Tell us something more about her."" I have got another story quite ready," said AuntEmma. " She was perhaps four when she said whatI shall tell you about now. One day, she was in alarge room with one of her aunts, and this aunt wasvery busy writing, and not taking any notice of Mary,till she heard her telling some stories to herself, in alow voice; then she listened, and' this is what Marywijs saying Once there was a little girl; her nurse1k4t her into bed, and then she went downstairs andTPft her in the dark, all alone ; then the little girlleard a noise, which frightened her very much indeed.B2

4 ROSE AND KATE.She lay still-she heard it again, and she was morefrightened. She lay still, and she heard it a thirdtime, and now she was so frightened she did not knowwhat to do; and, after all, she need not have beenfrightened the least bit, for it was only her guardianangel.' And so Mary's story ended."" Oh, aunty," said Katie, "this is so nice! do goon; and it is all true, which makes it much nicer.What is the next "So Aunt Emma went on, and said, "Once Marywas staying with her mamma and papa by the sea-side, and there was a great storm: the winds blew,blew, blew, never, never ceasing; the waves dashedand foamed and roared; the house shook and thewindows were covered with spray. Mary stood bythe window watching; she was very silent for sometime, and then her mother heard her say, 'The wavesof the sea are mighty, and rage horribly, but the Lord,who dwelleth on high, is mightier.' ""Oh, that was very nice !" said Rosie. "I loveMary. Anything more, aunty darling ?""One thing more, Rosie, I can remember," saidher aunt; "it is this-When Mary was quite a littletrot, not more than three years old, just as she wasbeing put into bed one night, a violent thunderstormcame on, which frightened her very much. You know,dears, how the thunder growls and roars, and the vividlightning flashes ""Oh, yes, aunty I know all this very well," saidlittle Rose; "but am I a wicked child because I amso frightened at thunder 1 for it does frighten me very

"THE LORD IS THY KEEPER." 5much indeed, and Katie too; and when it comes,after we are in bed, we creep as close as we can toeach other, and hide our heads under the clothes; andvery often I have screamed, onlynurse always comesto take care of us, because she knows we are sofrightened; and it is quite true, indeed it is, aunty,that thunder does kill people sometimes.""My darling," said Aunt Emma, "it is not at allwicked to be frightened at a thunderstorm; it is afearful thing, and many, even old people, are alwaysvery much alarmed at it; and it is, as you say, quitetrue that both houses and people are now and thenstruck by lightning; but when you feel very muchfrightened, then you should kneel down and ask Godto take care of you : He is your Father, and He willhear your prayer, and He will not forget you. He isvery near to you, and He can keep all evil away fromyou, which no nurse and no sister can do. Have youever learned that Psalm in which is said, He thatkeepeth thee will not slumber; the Lord is thykeeper; the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil'It is the 121st Psalm; suppose you both learn it be-fore Sunday next, and then come and say it to me ?I will tell you a little short story before we return toMary's history, about a poor little girl, who went to aschool in London, and there she was once asked by aclergyman what she thought the word 'preservation'meant, and she answered, I think it means thatGod has taken care of me through the crossings.' Itwas such a nice answer of this little child's, becausecrossing the streets in the crowded parts of London is

6 ROSE AND KATE.a very difficult and dangerous thing to do. Thereare cabs and carriages, carts and horses, and greatnoisy omnibuses, coming on this side and coming onthat side, never stopping; and then so much noiseand bustle, confusion and dirt. And perhaps often andoften this child had been obliged to go through all thison her way to school, or on her mother's errands, andhad felt exceedingly frightened,, and that God alonecould preserve and protect her. But now let us re-turn to Mary, and finish about her and the thunder-storm. I told you that she too, like you, dears, wassadly terrified : she hid her face in the bed-clothes;she could not go to sleep, and she begged and prayedher mother not to leave her; and so her mother satdown beside her, and put her arms round her, andtalked to her, and she told her that God would takecare of her, and that He would send His angel towatch over and to keep her. Well, by degrees, Marygrew quiet and tired too, and she went off quite fastasleep. She had a little bed in the corner of hermother's room, and in the morning her mother wasawakened by little Mary trying to lift up her eyelids,and calling out, Mamma, awake awake, mamma !'and when mamma did awake, she saw a little whitefigure, which had scrambled up on the bed, and was lean-ing over her, saying, He did give His angels charge ofme last night, and they did keep me, and I am safe.'""Oh, what a pretty story, Aunt Emma I hope Ishall not forget all this the next time I feel sofrightened. Katie, we must remind each other aboutit, musw"'t we "

AUNT SUSAN IN A CUPBOARD. 7" Yes, loves, you can do that, and you can learn yourpsalm, and say it over very often to yourselves; andthat will help you. But now I have one other littledroll saying of Mary's to tell you, which will amuseyou, and make you laugh and drive away the thoughtof the thunderstorm. She had always at her ownhome been used to a beautiful church, with long aisles,and painted windows, and open benches, and she andher brother were very fond of this church; but once,when she was on a visit to her grandpapa, she went toa very different style of church. It was a very uglyone, and was full of high pews. Mary did not like thisat all; she could hardly believe she was in a church;and when some one asked her in the evening of thatday what she had been doing, she said, She hadbeen to church with Aunt Susan in a cupboard.'""Oh, Aunt Emma, what a funny child! why didshe call it a cupboard ""Why? Rosie, but, because she was not used topews, and did not know what to make of them, andso she gave them this funny name. Another day, shewas in that same church, sitting beside that same aunt,and the sun broke suddenly out, and its rays cameshining brightly in through the windows, and thesebrilliant rays made the old church look dingy anddusty. Mary was watching the light and saw whereit rested, and she turned round to her aunt, with alook of great trouble and dismay on her face, andwhispered, Oh, aunty, there is a little dust in thechurchh' She could not bear to think that the churchwas not perfectly clean and well taken care of; she

8 ROSE AND KATE.had been brought up to have a great reverence for thebuilding, as being the House of God; and she wasquite right, only the way she said all this was in alittle child's way.""But, dear aunty," said Rosie, "little children doalways speak in little children's ways, don't they IThey cannot say long and wise things like old peopledo."" So, Rosie, that is what you think of old people, isit-that they are long and wise Is papa so? AmI so ?"" Oh, no Aunt Emma ; I don't think this either ofyou or of papa, because, if I did, I could not chatteraway to you as I do. I should be so afraid of you, andI should not love you at all; and I do love you, dearaunty, and papa too, very much; and I love to talkto you and to be with you. Oh, no you are not longand wise."" I am very glad," said Aunt Emma, " that youdon't think me too wise to be loved. I should be verysorry to lose my little Rosie and Katie's love; and asyou don't like long stories or long people, I have onemore little short story to tell you, not about Mary, butabout another and a younger brother of hers thanJohnnie -the youngest of all, Vincent. He had agreat love for all beautiful churches, and knew a greatdeal about church architecture, and church decorations,and church music, for a little boy. He had been usedto hear about these things, and to take an interest inthem; and when he was quite tiny, he was standingup with some other children, answering questions

THE CHILD SAHUEL. 9about the lessons he had been learning from the Bible,and one question he was asked was this, Tell me whoSamuel was ? Oh!' said Vincent, he was a littleboy who lived in the cathedral, and lit the lights, andkept it clean.' That was quite a little child's way ofanswering that question, was it not, Rosie ""Yes, indeed it was-but was it true ""Partly so, dear. I think we know that whenSamuel was quite a little boy, his mother brought himup to Jerusalem, and dedicated him to the service ofGod, and placed him in the temple, and gave him intothe-care of the High Priest Eli; and we hear of Godcalling Samuel one night when he was sleeping in thetemple ; and we hear of his opening the gates of the tem-ple in the morning. That was his life when he was achild; and there he grew up, in the precincts of thatbeautifultemple. Itwas notcalledacathedral, as Vincentcalled it-but it was the House of God in Jerusalem,dedicated to His service, as our cathedrals and churchesare now in England; but we have never seen any-thing so beautiful, so magnificent, so grand, so costly,as the temple at Jerusalem which Solomon, the greatand wise king, built. It was the glory of the land-it was the most splendid work of art which has everbeen seen. As you grow older, you will read andhear a great deal about this temple, and about itsawful destruction. Now, dear children, I think itmust be almost time for you to go back to the school-room. I heard 'the carriage return a few minutes ago-Miss Jones will be expecting you, and I am sure itis too dark now to do any more work; the daylight

10 ROSE AND KATE.has gone away whilst we have been talking, and themoonlight has come. Look at that beautiful moon,going in and out amidst those white clouds. What doyou think a little boy whom I know called the moon ?He was lying wide awake one night, in his bed-he haddrawn back the curtains from the window, and waswatching the moon; his mother came in, and said,' Robin, I had hoped to have found you fast asleep-what has kept you awake, my child ? Oh, mamma,'said Robin, I have been watching that cold sun inthe midst of its clouds.' ""Oh, Aunt Emma, we must come again and havesome more of your stories another day-do say wemay! "" You may, dear children; only now be off, or youwill be getting into trouble with Miss Jones."And so the two little girls ran away, quite happyand quite gay.

ALL ABOUT ROSE AND KATE. 11CHAPTER II.PERHAPS my little readers would like to knowsomething about Rose and Kate, and so I willtell them who they were. They were the two youngestchildren of a Mr. Howard. Their mother had diedwhen they were almost too young to remember her;they had one elder sister, called Susan. They thoughther very old, because she was fourteen, and they wereonly six and seven-and they had one brother, Walter;he was eleven, and, if the truth must be told, he wasrather spoiled. He teazed his sisters sadly when hewas at home-poked out their dolls' eyes, expectedthem always to do what he bid them do; said girlswere only fit to be boys' slaves. The house was turnedquite upside down when he was at home; and yet, ifyou had asked his sisters if they loved him, they wouldhave said, "Oh, yes, very much indeed; he is ouronly brother." By and bye he will be coming homefor his holidays, and then we shall have somethingmore to say about him, and we shall perhaps find thatas he grows older, he behaves better to his sisters, andis not so tiresome. Sister Susan, or Sue, as the childrencalled her, was a tall, thin, pale young lady, rather deli-'cate, and not very fond of children, as she always saidof herself, and therefore her little sisters were not so

12 ROSE AND KATE.very fond of her; but they were very fond of AuntEmma, their father's sister: she had lived with themfrom the day that their mother died, and she was verymuch devoted to them-to Walter and Susan, as wellas to the little ones; but, perhaps, her pet was Rosie.This one was such a sweet little girl, with large blueeyes, and soft bright flaxen hair curling down herround white shoulders, and she had such a loving littleheart of her own, and such an intelligent spirit.Every one loved Rosie; her sisters called her " ThePet;" and so she was. Even stern Miss Jones-for itmust be confessed that Miss Jones was rather stern-could not resist Rosie's winning ways, and would domore for her than for any of the others, and yet the littlecreature was not spoiled. No; she was very good, very.gentle, and very loving. Their father, Mr. Howard,was a man of good fortune, very much occupied withpublic matters, and leaving his home affairs almostentirely in the hands of Aunt Emma. There was noroom in all that great house so pretty as Aunt Emma's;not one that the children cared half so much about.To creep into this room, to look at the pictures, atall the little odd things; to hear where this wonderfulimage came from, and where that queer-looking stonewas found;. and what sweet little child picked up thisshell, and what other child found that one; and thento hear Aunt Emma play the harmonium, and to singtheir own hymns with her: all this was what they-delighted in; all this was what greatly pleased AuntEmma to let them do.Sunday came, and they all went to church in the

SUNDAY EVENING. 13morning, but the afternoon was very wet, and thechildren could not go out. It was the custom of thefamily to have an early dinner on Sunday, when theyreturned home from morning service. They did notgo to church in the afternoon again, but in the even-ing ; and at five o'clock they all used to meet in theschoolroom for tea-papa, Aunt Emma, Susan, anyvisitors that might be in the house, and the little girls.This Sunday they came into tea as usual, and Mr.Howard said-" My little girls must all stay at homethis evening-it is too wet for you to go to church;you too, Aunt Emma, must stay. I am sure it willnot do for you to brave the weather. I shall go my-self, as I don't mind rain."" Neither do I," said Miss Jones, "so I shall go also.""Very well," said Aunt Emma, "then the childrenmay come to me.""May I come with them, aunty ?" said Susan."Yes, dear, of course you may," answered AuntEmma.This arrangement pleased the three girls very much,and in a short time they were snug and warm in theiraunt's pretty room, where a bright fire was burning,and shining on the crimson curtains and on the glossyhair and happy faces of the young opes who sataround it." Now," said Aunt Emma, "the first thing I wishyou to do is, to say the psalm I told you to learn-do you know it quite perfectly, dears ? "" Yes, we do !" said Kate; and the psalm was said.Then their aunt asked, "Which little girl can tell

14 ROSE AND KATE.me an instance, out of the Bible, where an angel"was sent to protect any one in danger I"" Oh," said Rosie, "I know one; it is this-Danielin the den of lions; and how I know it is, because Ihave seen a picture about it.""Have you, Rosie ? " said Kate. "I never sawthat picture. Did you, Sue ?""No," said Susan, "I don't remember ever havingseen that picture. What is it like I""Aunty, dear, tell us about it," said Kate; "youcan, I am sure."" Yes, I know the picture very well," said aunty."It is like this: Daniel is sitting on a stone, in thatfearful, horrible den; bones are lying scattered all about,and the savage, hungry, glaring-eyed lions are crouch-ing down-one, two, three-round where he sits; hisarms are crossed, his hands clasped on his breast, andhis eyes are looking steadily upward. Perhaps he wasrepeating that very psalm you have just said, to him-self-' My help cometh from the Lord, which madeheaven and earth,' and so on. Then in the picture wecan see that an angel is standing over Daniel, keepingguard and watch-keeping the lions' mouths shut, sothat they could not hurt him. The den is full of asoft bright light, which comes from the shining wingsof the angel. It is a beautiful picture, and I willgive it you, Katie, for a birthday present when yournext birthday comes."" It comes very soon, aunty, so will you buy it thenext time you go to London ?"" I will have it ready, dear," answered Aunt Emma." Don't think I shall forget my promise."

THE LIONS' DEN. 15"*' What a dreadful fright Daniel must have been in! "said Rosie. " It was very cruel of the king, puttinghim in.""It was, dear child, very wrong and very cruel;but it was done by a heathen, not a Christian. It mustindeed have been an awful night. Hour after hour,hour after hour, there alone! with those fiercelions--hungry, growling, savage. But perhaps hesaw the angel all the time, because we know that hesaid to King Darius, when that king came in themorning, and stood at the mouth of the den, andcalled, 'Oh, Daniel, is thy God, whom thou servestcontinually, able to deliver thee from the lions'?' MyGod hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions'mouths, that they have not hurt me.'""I do so like this story," said Rose, "it alwaysinterests me so very much. I am never tired of it."" Now, do you think, Rosie, that you could findaunty another story of an angel being sent to helpone of God's servants when he was in great danger ?""Let me think," said Rosie; "wait two or threeminutes, and then, perhaps, I shall remember aboutsomeone." And the little girl sat down on her lowstool, covered her face with her hands, and thought;in a very short time she looked up and said-" Paparead yesterday morning, at prayers, about the angelopening the prison door and letting St. Peter out."" Yes, so he did, dear Rosie; and I was hoping thatyou would remember this, because you had heard himread it so lately.""Yes, I do remember it," said Rosie. " I know all

16 ROSE AND KATE.about it, and how very much astonished he was;almost as much astonished as I should be if I saw anangel, I really think !-oh, dear I wish I could seeone. Do they ever come now ? has anybody alive everseen one 1 ""No, Rosie, no one; it is a very, very long timesince any angels were seen on earth. Would youlike to hear what a little boy once said to his mammaabout angels 1 They had been talking just as we arenow, and she had been telling him how, once, angelsused to visit this earth, and to help men when theywere in trouble, and Willie looked up in his mother'sface and said, What were the angels like, mamma ''I don't know, dear Willie-I never saw one; but Iam sure they are very beautiful.' Then said Willie,just what you said, Rosie, a minute ago, Oh how Iwish I could see one. Mamma, what a pity it is thatwhen they did come down into this world, somebodydid not shoot one, and stuff him, and then we couldhave known what they were like !'""Oh, Aunt Emma! " cried all the three girls. "Inever heard anything so odd as that !" and Kate wenton, "How dared Willie say it! Was his mammavery angry !""No, dear Kate, she was not angry; she knewquite well that her little Willie did not mean to.sayanything wrong, and that had he been older he wouldnot have said it. It was just a child's way of express-ing himself; he had seen museums, with all kinds ofwonderful animals stuffed, and his papa had told hima great deal about these animals, and that some of

" DEATH AND SLUMBER." 17them had been dead for many thousand years, and soWillie put this all together in his own mind and madethat very curious speech.""Have you got any more angel stories to tell us?"said Rosie." No, love. I can't think of any more just now,but I found in a book, the other day, a beautiful kindof fable about Death and Slumber-here spoken of astwo angels. I think, Susan, you will like to hear thisfable, though, perhaps, the two little sisters may notquite understand it.""I don't care about that, dear aunt," said Rosic." I like to hear things read I don't understand; itsounds so grand, and so odd. Do read this fable ""Well, love, I will; this is it:-" DEATH AND SLUMBER." In brotherly embrace walked the Angel of Sleepand the Angel of Death upon the earth." It was evening. They laid themselves down upona hill, not far from the dwellings of men. A melan-choly silence prevailed around, and the chimes of theevening bell in the distant hamlet ceased. Still andsilent, as was their custom, sat these two beneficentgenii of the human race, their arms entwined withcordial familiarity, and soon the shadows of nightgathered round them."'Then arose the Angel of Sleep from his mossgrowncouch, and strewed, with a gentle hand, the invisiblegrains of slumber. The evening breeze wafted themu

18 ROSE AND KATE.to the quiet dwelling of the tired husbandman, en-folding in sweet sleep the inmates of the rural cottage,from the old man with the staff, down to the infant inthe cradle. The sick forgot their pain; the mournerstheir grief; the poor their care; all eyes closed." His task accomplished, the benevolent Angel ofSleep laid himself again by the side of his gravebrother. " When Aurora awakes," exclaimed he, withinnocent joy, " men praise me as their friend and bene-factor. Oh, what happiness, unseen and secretly toconfer such benefits How blessed are we to be theinvisible messengers of the Good Spirit How beau-tiful is our silent calling!" So spake the friendlyAngel of Slumber." The Angel of Death sat with still deeper melan-choly on his brow, and a tear, such as mortals shed,appeared in his large dark eyes. "Alas " said he, "Imay not, like thee, rejoice in the cheerful thanks ofmankind; they call me upon earth their enemy andjoy-killer."" " Oh, my brother " replied the gentle Angel ofSlumber, "will not the good man, at his awaking, re-cognize in thee his friend and benefactor, and grate-fully bless thee in his joy ? Are we not brothers, andministers of one Father 1 "" As he spake,the eyes of the Death Angel beamedwith pleasure, and again did the two friendly geniicordially embrace each other.'"Do you like my story, Susan 7" said Aunt Emma,when she had finished reading it." Yes I think it very pretty indeed, aunty," said

TIE TWO ANGELS. 19Susan. " I think I understand quite well what itmeans-and the Angel of Slumber might have said tothe Angel of Death, when he wept, Blessed are thedead who die in the Lord.' ""Very true, my dear Susan," said her aunt; " thatwould have been a Christian's answer, and I am gladyour own mind suggested it to you. Perhaps, beforewe quite finish our talk you would like me to read toyou another very short Turkish allegory-the last Iread was German.""Oh, yes, aunty Read it us-do " said the threegirls."Well, listen, dears; this is it:-"'Every man has two angels-one on his rightshoulder and another on his left. When he does any-thing good, the angel on his right shoulder writes itdown, and seals it, because what is done is done forever."'When he has done evil, the angel on his leftshoulder writes it down-he waits till midnight. Ifbefore that time the man bows down his head, and ex-claims, " Gracious Allah I have sinned; forgive me !"the angel rubs it out: if not, at midnight he seals it,and the angel on the right shoulder weeps.' ""Is that all " said little Rosie. "I am sorry it isso short: I like to hear you read those grand things,aunty dear, though I am too little a girl quite to under-stand them. I should be very much frightened if Ithought that it was really true that I had an angel onmy right hand and another on my left. I shouldnever dare to turn my head round, for fear of seeingc2

20 ROSE AND KATE.them; but I know very well that stories are not realthings, and so I don't mind. But I do like hearingyou tell them, aunty, very much indeed.""Then, dear child, perhaps you would like onemore story about An angel on the right hand and anangel on the left;' or shall I tell you it another(lay ?""No-now, Aunt Emma," said the little girls-" we are none of us in the least tired."" Sir Walter Scott has turned the legend I am goingto tell you about into a poem, which he calls, TheWild Huntsman.' He tells in this poem how, on oneSunday morning, when the bells were calling sinful mento pray, the hunter, instead of listening to the bells,cried, To horse to horse! Halloo halloo!' Andhe went, he on his fiery courser, the eager dogs andthe serfs or serving-men following him; and as herode, he was joined by two strange horsemen. Theone on his right hand was young and fair, and hissmile was like the morn of May, and his steed wassilver white; the one on his left hand had an eye oftawny glare, which shot midnight's lightning lurid ray,and his steed was black with the swarthy hue of hell.""Oh, dreadful, aunty !" said Katie. " Go on-thisis very interesting."So Aunt Emma went on-" The white horseman, or angel on his right hand,kept whispering softly to him, that this was God'shallowed day, that he ought to turn back, to giveup the chase, and listen to the sweet pealing bells,calling him to worship and to pray; whilst the

TIE WILD HUNTSMAN. 21black horseman, or the evil spirit, on his left hand,urges him to go on, not to mind those bells, to dowhat pleased himself, and follow the chase, and bea man. So on he rides, trampling down every-thing that he and his savage dogs and his wild fol-lowers meet in their way-flocks and herds, corn andpasture, man and beast, no matter what; in vain, allin vain, the white horseman keeps whispering in hiscar, Have mercy Oh, stay Have pity Oh, spare 'He heeds not these whispers ; on, on, he goes, urgedever more by the black horseman's wicked words-'Do not have pity-do not spare-do not stay-on,on !' At length a noble stag is roused from his lair,and, springing up, bounds forth into the forest; afterhim tear the huntsman, the hounds, the servants-thechase goes wildly on, through thicket and glade, uphill and dale-on, on they go-the stag at lengthtakes refuge in a holy hermit's chapel-the wild anddesperate huntsman enters to seize and slay his prey-the hermit meets him with uplifted hands; and ex-claims-Forbear with blood God's house to stain;Revere His altar and forbear!'Mercy pity-spare-hear !' whispers the white,fair horseman. 'Slay! kill! On on !' mutters, on theother hand, the black demon; and his mutters wereheeded, his counsel was followed, and to the holyhermit the hunter turned and said-'Holy or not, or right or wrong,Thy altar and its rites I spurn;

22 ROSE AND KATE.Not sainted martyr's sacred song,Not God himself shall make me turn.'He spurs his horse, he winds his horn :Hark forward! forward! Holla! ho!Then suddenly he finds himself entirely alone-horseand man, horn and hound, all gone. Dark silencereigned around, and he himself tried to speak, butcould not utter a word; he could not raise his voigeto cry aloud for help, or to break the spell whichbound him. At length a voice from heaven spoke,and thus it said-Oppressor of Creation fairApostate spirit's hardened tool!Scorner of God! Scourge of the poor!The measure of thy cup is full.Be chased for ever through the wood;For ever roam the affrighted wild,And let thy fate instruct the proud.God's meanest creature is His child."And now the huntsman rose in terror, and began toflee; after him rose also a throng of black horsemenand black dogs, pursuing him, following him, chasinghim, and shrieking out, Hark away !' and Hollaho!' And-Still, still shall last the dreadful chase,Till time itself shall have an end;By day they scour earth's caverned space,At midnight's witching hour ascend.This is the horn, and hound, and horse,That oft the lated peasant hears,Appall'd, he signs the frequent cross,When the wild din invades his ear.

LITTLE ROSIE AND KATIE'S REFLECTIONS. 23"Now, dears, what do you think of this story ? Isit not a wild one I You look quite pale, Rosie.""It is dreadful, dear aunty; but it does not saywhether he killed the stag in the chapel."" We are left to suppose he did, dear child. Andthen, because of his cruelty and his listening to thebad, black horseman, and because he did not fearGod, this punishment was awarded him, that he wasto be chased for ever through the earth, and throughthe clouds, and through the air, by evil spirits andtheir terrible bloodhounds. But I think we have hadenough of this story. I don't think you quite like it,dear children; do you ?""Oh, yes, Aunt Emma! " said Katie; "I like tohear about these things; but I do hope we shall nevermeet this hunter, and never see him in the sky-doyou think we ever shall ?""No, dear Katie, never ""Of course not, auntie !" said little Rose. " Weknow quite well that such things don't really happen-that they are only in books; andI am veryglad they arein books, for I am very fond of hearing about all thesethings, though they are not a bit true.""Well, Rosie, though the story of the Wild Hunts-man is not true, still there is a great deal to be learnedfrom this, and other stories of this kind. You willunderstand this better as you grow older, and you willknow that the White Horseman may mean Conscience,and that if any one, even a child, determines to dowhat he knows to be wrong, and won't listen to whathis conscience says to him, then the Evil Spirit, or the

24 ROSE AND KATE.Black Horseman, will get more and more power overhim, and make him worse and worse, till he becomesquite wicked. Now, then, we will stop talking forto-night, but, before you go to bed, shall we sing twoor three hymns "" Oh, yes, aunty, please !" said the children; "thatwill be nice."" So it will, dears," said Aunt Emma. "Susan, youshall play-we will have Keble's Evening Hymn tobegin with; and Rosie, ring the bell, love, for candles."The candles were brought in, they were lighted, theharmonium was opened, and the singing had j ust begunwhen in walked Mr. Howard, back from church. Helooked quite astonished to see his two little girls stillup; but aunty explained to him how it had happened,and that they had been so busy talking that they didnot know it was so late; and then papa said, "Asyou are up, I can't send you supperless to bed, and soI invite you both to stay supper-it will be ready inten minutes-and now we will sing our hymns."The ten minutes soon passed away, and the supper-bell rang, and they all went down; and very tired, andvery sleepy, and very happy were the two little girlswhen they went to bed about half-past nine o'clock.

LUCY AND EDITH CAMPBELL. 25CHAPTER III.THE children had not been into Aunt Emma's roomSfor a good talk for ten days, because the house hadbeen quite full of company-ladies and gentlemen,young and old-and Aunt Emma had been too muchoccupied with the visitors to have had any time forthe children; but then a birthday came; it was Kate'ssixth birthday, and birthdays were made a great dealof in this family, as they are in so many, and perhapsKate's was made the most of, of all, because she wasthe youngest. On this day, when she was six yearsold, she had been allowed to invite her own friends,and to order her own dinner. Now, the friends shehad invited were Lucy and Edith Campbell. She wasvery fond of these two little girls ; one had brown hairand dark eyes, and the other had fair curling hair andblue eyes; they were the two eldest daughters of theDean of R-- and they lived in a cathedral town,and went very, very often to the services of their beau-tiful cathedral; and you can't think what a treat it wasto Rosie and Katie Howard to go and spend the daywith the little Campbells, and go with them to churchin the cathedral, as they used to say, and to hear thegrand pealing organ, and to see the cold white marblestatues; though I am going to tell you, in a whisper,,

26 ROSE AND KATE.that the very first time Rosie, when she was aboutfour years old, saw one of these marble statues, shewas frightened, and did not like to look at it. AuntEmma was not with her; but when the child] sawher aunt, she ran up to her, and, putting her armsround her neck, she said, " Oh, Aunt Emma, I sawsuch a horrid thing in the cathedral! Do you knowthey have dug up a dead woman, and laid her on awhite mattress?" Poor little Rosie She was too youngto understand the beauty of the cold, pure white figure,lying still and with folded hands on its sculptured bed.Aunt Emma explained it to her as well as she could,and left it to time to make it still clearer. "When Iwas a child, I thought as a child." There was a storyabout a boy being once shut up in this cathedral, thatthe children would listen to over and over again, ifanyone would tell it to them, with the greatest plea-sure. But the person that they most enjoyed hearingit from, was the very gentleman to whom it had hap-pened, when he was a child. This gentleman was aMr. Percy, an uncle of the Campbell children, and thisis how he used to tell it to Lucy and Edith Campbell,and to Susan, Rosie, and Kate Howard-"When I was a boy, about twelve years old, I wasvery fond of boasting, and of saying I was such abrave boy, and that there was nothing I could befrightened at ; and that only silly girls were ever fright-ened, and that I was far too much of a man to careabout anything. This was not at all true, my dear littlegirls; but I used to say so, because I was such a foolishyoung goose-and the consequence of all this boasting

MR. PERCY'S STORY ABOUT HIMSELF. 27was, that I was very much disliked, and the boylkisedto play me all sorts of tricks, and tease me, and leadme such an unhappy life. I was called Master GrandWords, and Master Fear Nought, and Master Ridi-culous I said I did not care; but do you know Idid, and I often would have cried, if I had dared; andonce I seriously thought of running away from school,for I was at the grammar school of this very town-that one you all know, close to the cathedral. Well,dears, how do you think I was cured of this boasting,and punished for it too ? In this way-the boysdared me to go and spend a whole night alone in thecathedral. They said I would not do it; that, boasteras I was, I should not dare to do it. I said I would,and that I did dare to do it. 'Then you shall!'they exclaimed; 'we will make you; you shall notescape.' Oh, my dear little girls, I can almost feelnow as frightened as I did then, when I perceivedthat the boys had resolved I should be shut up alonefor the whole of one long, long, dark, dark nightin the cathedral. I knew that there was no escape-that the boys, these cruel enemies of mine, wouldplot and plan, and force me to do it-and so theydid. They got the keys from the verger-how, Idon't remember, but they got them-and one moment,when I was not expecting any harm and was offmy guard, I was seized, my arms pinioned, and, inspite of every effort, I was forcibly dragged to thecathedral door, pushed in, and I heard the lock turnedupon me. There I was, hungry, terrified, indignant,and passionately cngry. It was twilight without, but

28 ROSE AND KATE.it w&amp; deep gloom within the cathedral. I sat downnear the door and burst into tears; there I sat till thepassion of tears was over, and then I wandered upand down near the door, because I could occasionallyhear people passing by on the outside; but after anhour or two all sounds ceased, and it became awfullydark and still. I did not dare to move. By and by,the moon rose, and it shone in through those beauti-ful painted windows we all love so much; and now. theworst terror of all seized me, a terror which I have neverforgotten, and never shall forget. Not far from whereI was crouching down in that vast aisle, was a tomb,an ancient monument; I could just see that on it therelay a figure; something in this figure fascinated me,and I kept watching it. It seemed to me to move-Ifelt sure it moved-and a scream of agony burst fromme, and rang through the empty, lonely, dim building.This scream did really make that figure move-it roseslowly, slowly, slowly-it stretched out its arms-itwas coming to me. I believe I fainted, for I don'tremember anything more, till some hours after I foundmyself lying on my own bed, and a doctor on one sideof me, and my master on the other. I tried to speak,but I was told to lie very quiet and to keep still.Something was given me to drink, and I went offto sleep, but it was a long time before I recovered fromthe awful night I had had. I was sent home to myown parents, to be nursed and taken care of, and theboys who had pushed me into the cathedral, and thenlocked the door and left me, were severely punished.Now I dare say you all want to know about the figure

THE POOR IDIOT BOY. 29which moved, and came towards me. I did not knowfor a long time myself what it was, because I did notdare to ask ; but as I recovered my health, I ceased tobe so dreadfully terrified at the thought of that nightin the dark cathedral, and my mother told me that itwas an idiot boy, who had gone to the afternoon ser-vice in the cathedral, as he often did, and had fallenasleep, and the verger had locked him in, withoutknowing whathe had done. Once before he had beenfound lying down flat on this monument, so, when hedid not come home that evening, his mother grewalarmed, and went to the verger and asked him to beso kind as to let her look for her poor idiot boy in thecathedral. The verger said, Oh, yes and they wenttogether, and there they found me, lying insensible onthe floor, and the idiot boy standing by me, andpointing to me. I was carried into the school-house,and the boy went home with his mother. That night,and the illness which followed cured me of boasting;no one ever called me Master Grand yVords or Master.Fear Nought again. I was so silent and so timid formany, many years, that I know my father was dis-tressed for me, but by degrees I got better. And soyou have have heard my story; and I demand pay-ment for it from all my little nieces." "In what ?"" Kisses, dear uncle ." they would answer; and so ina moment Uncle Percy was smothered by the kissesfrom all the little ones.But now we must go back to the birthday, and tothe party asked to keep it. The two most importantvisitors, in Katie's eyes, were her own two especial

30 ROSE AND KATE.friends, Lucy and Edith Campbell. "My friends,"she always called them-"Katie's friends," her sisterscalled them; and one day Katie confided to Rosie,"that she really did feel very much hurt when any onefound fault with her two friends; that she felt quitesure they were the very nicest little girls in theworld " So these two, "the very nicest little girlsin the world," were coming to keep Katie's birthday,and I assure you, my young readers, it was a matterof very great importance what was to be ordered fordinner. It was not for her own self, or even for hersisters, that Katie thought so much about this matter.No ; it was entirely because of her two friends. "Iwonder what they would like " she said to AuntEmma. "Well, dear," said Aunt Emma, "I reallydo not know, and I dare say they will like anythingthat is provided for them. " But I wish them to havesomething very nice-something they don't get everyday ; and I know now what it shall be-a roast goose,stuffed with potatoes." Aunt Emma smiled, and said,"What put this into your head, dear?" "It wasMary Maitland, Cousin Catharine's maid. I heard hersay to nurse that when she was staying at some greathouse-I forget its name-they had a roast goosestuffed with potatoes one night for supper, in the house-keeper's room, and that- it was really delicious; andnurse said that she had not the least doubt but that itwas. So please, Aunt Emma, let us have it. Andthen, as for pudding. I won't have a plum pudding-it is so very common-it is what all the poor schoolchildren have. My friends shall not be treated like-*

KATIE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY. 31school children. I will choose an apple crumb pud-ding and some custards."Very well," said Aunt Emma. "Now that we havesettled this important matter, ring the bell, and we willhave Mrs. Salt up," (she was the housekeeper,) "andyou shall tell her what you have fixed upon. Perhapsshe has not got a goose ready-so you must not be dis-appointed if you can't have it." But, as it happened,there was a goose in the house, and Mrs. Salt listenedquietly to all her "little lady" had to say, and pro-mised that the dinner should be just as she wished itto be. One o'clock struck, and Rosie and Katie ranupstairs to nurse to be made tidy, and nurse hadtheir best frocks ready for them, which were veryquickly popped on, and their hands were washed, andtheir hair combed, and a kiss given by old nursie toboth her darlings, and down they rushed to the school-room to be ready to receive their friends; two orthree other children were coming, beside the two greatfriends, but, as they were almost strangers, we havenot much to say about them. Unfortunately for the*children, the day turned out to be bitterly cold. Thewind was very keen, and the snow began to fall, sothey were all obliged to stay in the house. Mr.IHoward.told them they might have the large dining-room and the great hall to scamper about in, and tomake as much noise in as they liked, provided theywould leave him in peace in his own room, and AuntEmma in peace in hers. And a pretty noise they didmake-as children always manage to do when theyget together; they played at battledore and shuttle-

"32 ROSE AND KATE.cock; they played at blindman's buff; they played atpuss in the corner; they played at magical music,and in short, at everything they could think of; theywere all wild with fun and laughing, and glee, whensomething happened which might have had a veryterrible end. What do you think this was Youshall hear. Katie, the little birthday girl, saidshe would hide, and away she ran. She went rightthrough the great hall and into a passage, at theend of which were folding doors leading down somesteps into a conservatory: she had intended in herown mind to have hid in that conservatory behind agreat orange tree which grew out of a large green potin one corner-but, on her way there, she saw a dooropen in the passage, which she had never seen openbefore. Without any one seeing her, she popped inthrough this door, thinking to herself, " They willnever find me here, but Rosie would soon have foundme in the conservatory." Poor little child! she didnot know what she wag doing, for the door shut afterher as she went in with a great snap, and there shewas-in a dark closet-quite alone. She did not dareto move, she felt so frightened; she called out, butnobody heard her; she tried, but all in vain, to pushthe door open; there was no handle that she could findto shake, and she began to cry bitterly. The closetthat she had hid in was a safe place, where valuablepapers and the plate were kept, and it shut with aspring, which nobody inside could open; thereforepoor little Katie never could have got out. Well, theother children looked and looked for her everywhere,

K.ATiE CANNOT BE FOUND. 33but they could not find her; they scampered aboutand called so wildly and so frequently for her, thatMr. Howard, who was sitting writing in his own room,heard the noise, and Katie's name so often mentioned.that he came out and said, "What is the matter,little ones What are you all in such a state about ?What has Katie done, that you are so energetic abouther ? "" We have lost her, papa," said Rosie ; "we cannotfind her anywhere; she is not in the hall, she is notin the drawing-room, she is not in the dining-room,she is not under the stairs; we have searched everyplace we can think of, from tip to toe, and can't findher ""Have you been to Aunt Emma's room' " saidpapa."Yes, we have," answered many voices, "yet she isnot there !""IHave you found her?" asked Aunt Emma, atthat very moment from the top of the stairs." No, aunty, we have not. Where can she be ?"" Edmund," said Aunt Emma to Mr. Howard,"had you not better send the butler into the garden ?she must have gone there, through the conservatory."" Not in this snow, I trust," said Mr. Howard, "Iwill go myself, and see."As he went, he passed down the passage, and by thedoor of the safety-closet, and his ear heard a wildsob-he stopped-he called, " Katie, Katie, darling !"very loud; he heard a scream, and a stifled voice whichsaid, " I'm here, papa, shut up, take me out "D

34 ROSE AND KATE.Then Mr. Howard knew where his little girl was,but how she had got in, he could not imagine; hecalled the butler instantly, and told him to open thedoor, for the butler had the key which drew back thespring; the butler came and the door was opened, andlittle Katie, white as a sheet and covered with tears,was taken out. For some minutes no one thought ofanything else but the child, and what a blessing itwas that she had been so quickly found, before anyreal harm had come to her; then Mr. Howard gaveher into Aunt Emma's care, and sent for the butler,that he might find out how this could have happened,because Mr. Howard's express orders were that thatdoor should never for an instant be left open; thenthe butler confessed, that he had gone to the safety-closet to get some plate out, that he had been calledaway, and had left the door open, meaning to be backin a moment; he had been detained, and so, all hadhappened. He was so very much distressed, and soexceedingly sorry, that Mr. Howard forgave him, andfelt quite sure that he never would do it again. Inthe meantime, frightened, sobbing, exhausted littleKatie was being sheltered and comforted by kindAunt Emma. The other children were standinground the fire in the hall, and talking over what hadhappened, and what a good thing it was that Mr.Howard had heard her sobbing." Do you know," said one of the little girls, " thatmy grown-up sister Aimbe sings a song to us littleones, and it is all about a lady who was really buriedin a chest-she was a bride, and all the guests were

"THE LADY IN TIIM CHEST. 35having great games on her wedding-day--they playedat hide and seek."" Nonsense, child " here broke in Lucy Campbell," grown-up people don't play at hide and seek, and ofcourse if they were wedding guests they were grownup-go on."" I won't go on, if you say nonsense in that way,because it is not nonsense, and it is in the song whichmy sister Aimee sings."" Never mind her," said Rosie, "tell us about it,Lucy, we want to hear it so much."So the little story-teller went on and said, "Atlast the bride ran away and said she would hide, andshe jumped into a chest, which snapped down uponher, and she was never found again. I remember oneverse of the song says-He sought her that night, and he sought her next day;And he sought her in vain, till a week passed away.She was never found, never again; not for a greatmany years, and then some one went to this chestand opened it, and there they found a skeletonlady all dressed in white, and people said it must bethe bride who had been lost on her wedding-day.What a good thing Katie was found!" the childended her story with. But the story and the excite-ment, and the terror which seized loving little Rosielest Katie should not have been found, were too muchfor her, and she burst into tears. The children didnot know what to do, but nurse just at that momentcame down-stairs, to take them all up to the nurseryD 2

36 ROSE AND KATE.with her, and get them ready for tea; she saw thetrouble her darling Rosie was in, and took her on herlap, and wiped away her tears, and talked very nicelyto her, telling her that it was God who had taken careof Katie, and had not suffered any harm to come toher. And by-and-by Rosie's bright smile and colourcame back, and she went and got ready for tea, withall the rest of the young troop.And now they were all seated at tea. Mr. Howardwas there, and several ladies who were visitors in thehouse. Miss Jones made tea-capital tea, too, it was,and such rich cream, which pleased the children wholived in the cathedral-town, and who had neverseon such thick cream, "so thick, that it wouldscarcely pour," they exclaimed; and then came in AuntEmma, and with her Katie, who still looked a littlepale. Papa put the little six-year-old birthday queenbeside himself, at the head of the table, and by degreesshe got quite, quite merry again, as merry as any onepresent, and every one looked happy and as pleased aspleased could be. Then said Aunt Emma, "When teais finished, I invite every person, young and old, herepresent, to come into my room, as I have somethingthere for them all to see." The children turned round,each one, and looked at Katie as aunty said this.Katie looked up at papa, and papa looked as grave asa judge, and as though he knew nothing at all aboutwhat was to be seen in Aunt Emma's room. Afterthis, the tea was very quickly finished. "Do makehaste " said one child to another who had still gota little cake to eat. "J have quite finished." said

EATIE'S BIRTHDAY PRESENTS. 'ianother. "So have I So have I !" came from allthe young ones. " Then," said Mr. Howard, " if tea isat an end, we will go and see what Aunt Emmacan have got in her room." Away they went, headedby papa, leading Katie; he knocked at the door, andon hearing, " Come in " opened it, and in they went.Very soon all the bright sharp little eyes caught sightof a round table, covered over with a white cloth. " Iknow, I know; there it is !" some little eager voicessaid. Papa led Katie up to the table; he and AuntEmma lifted the cloth gently off, and lo and behold !such a table of beautiful things certainly could not beseen every day. "Katie's birthday presents" waswritten in large letters on a card, and laid on the topof them all. Oh, what clapping of hands there was,to be sure! Oh, what screams of delight "Katie,that's my present," said one; "Katie, that's mine,"said another; " Katie, look here I got this for you,"said a third; but there was no present like papa's,for what do you think it was-a most beautiful largebaby doll, in long clothes, and with soft hair andpretty eyes, which opened and shut, and with a lovelyrose-coloured cloak and white quilted silk hood.There was not a little girl in all that party that didnot feel within herself, " Oh, how I wish that were mydolly " Then there was Aunt Emma's present; andI dare say you would like to know what she gave. Weknow that she had promised a picture of Daniel in thelions' den, but we did not know that it was to be thefirst picture in a beautiful, large Sunday scrap-book;but so it was, and Aunt Emma opened the book and

38 ROSE AND KATE.showed her little Katie the picture which had beenpromised to her, and that it was the first one in a bookquite full of others as striking and as interesting intheir different ways. The book had a red moroccocover, and a gold clasp. Katie was very much pleased.Now would you like to know what Lucy and EdithCampbell gave her ? These two little girls had had along consultation with their own mamma as to whattheir present should be; they said Katie had suchheaps of toys and such heaps of books, that they reallydid not know what they could give her that she hadnot got. So mamma suggested a very nice paint-box,because she happened to have heard Katie say thatshe did wish for a paint-box, and that she had not gotone-so this box was a very acceptable present. Thenmany other little gifts, such as muffettees, and prettysmall ornaments for the baby-house-but we reallycan't describe them all, so dear little readers, you mustpicture them to yourselves; and I dare say you can, be-cause most likely you have all had them given toyou, by some kind mamma, or papa, or aunt, orcousins, or friend. Now when all these presents-thesebeautiful presents-had been thoroughly well looked atand examined, and Mr. Howard knew that it wasgetting time for the young visitors to be going home,he gathered all the children together and took themwith him into the hall, and then out of his pocket hedrew a long, long bag-this he opened, popped hishand in, and showered down upon the rich crimsoncarpet such delicious sugar-plums and bonbons ofdiLerent kinds, after which the little ones scrambledW

i' IS ONLY NERO. 30and rushed; and whilst they were all as busy as bees,picking up these good things, the hall door was openedby some gentleman, who was returning home ratherlIte, and as he opened it a big, shaggy, black New-foundland dog came bounding in, and he knocked downone child, and he jumped over another, and he barkedwith joy and capered about, crushing and dirtying thebeautiful white bonbons lying about on the carpet,with his great feet; and some of the children, whodid not know this great doggy, screamed with frightand terror, which made Rosie and Katie laugh and say,"How can you be so foolish, it is only Nero, our owndear darling doggy " and no sooner did Nero hear hisname said by Rosie, than he ran and jumped up, and'put his big paws on her shoulder. "Down, Nero!"said Rosie, "don't you know, you foolish dog, that Ihave got my best frock on; oh, look here, you havedirtied it, what will nursie say ""Nursie shall be told that it was not your fault, mylittle child!" said Mr. Howard; "but for fear itshould happen again, we must turn naughty Neroout." And so out into the cold snowy night went thepoor doggy, though I have no doubt he had muchrather have been allowed to stay in that warm com-fortable hall, and sleep all night away on the matbefore the fire.And now the servants and the carriages were comefor the little ladies, and it was getting quite late, al-most nine o'clock, so the cloaks were put on, and thehats were put on, and all the warm wrappers thatsuch a cold night made necessary, and the children

40 ROSE AND KATE.were packed off home; but before Lucy and EdithCampbell went, Mr. Howard told them to ask mammaand papa whether they would be so kind as to allowthem to come and spend a week at the hall, this verynext week, if they could be spared. This message gavethe greatest pleasure, not only to Lucy and Edith, butalso to Rose and Kate, for they had had no idea thattheir papa was going to be so very kind as to give themthis treat. And so ended this happy birthday, for ithad been a happy day, in spite of the fright whichKatie's unfortunate hiding in that dark closet hadgiven them all. " Oh, I am so tired," said the littlesix-year-old girl, "I wish somebody would carry meupstairs, I shall never, never get up by myself." " Is itso very hard as all that, Katie 7" said her papa. " Isuppose I must help you, if it is so, and be your bearer-so come up, big burthen." And he lifted her in hisarms and carried her upstairs, and laid her down on therug before the nursery fire; but I promise you she didnot lay long there, for nurse soon had her up, un-dressed her as quick as quick could be, heard her andRosie say their evening hymn and prayer, and thentucked them both up most snugly, warmly, and com-"fortably in their white cosy beds.&lt;*1

WAITING FOR LUCY AND EDITII. 41CHAPTER IV.N the morning of the next day there came a notefrom Mrs. Campbell, saying that she would allowher two little daughters to accept Mr. Howard's kindinvitation, and that on Tuesday afternoon she woulddrive up with them to the Hall, and leave them there.Guess what joy this note gave-nothing was talked ofby Rose and Kate, out of lesson hours, but all thathad happened on the birthday, all the presents, allthe fun; and then the pleasure they were going tohave next week, when their two visitors arrived. Thatweek seemed rather a long one, it must be confessed,to the two girls; but at last Tuesday came; they hadasked Miss Jones to let them get all their lessons donebefore four o'clock on that day, and she very good-naturedly had yielded to this wish, and had kept thema little longer in the morning, and had began a littleearlier than usual in the afternoon, so that by half-past three, the work, and music, and sums, and spell-ing, and geography, had been all done, and the childrenwere quite ready to receive their friends. They wentdown into the hall, and waited there as patiently asthey could. Nero was there, dry and clean, as it hap-pened, and so they played with him, and made himput one of his shaggy paws alternately into each of

42 fOSE AND KATE.their hands, and then they put a bit of biscuit on hisblack nose, and said, "Don't touch that Nero till wesay three '" and then they said " One, two, three !"and the very moment Nero heard that last word, whichthey both shouted out, he tossed up his head, awaywent the bit of biscuit up into the air, and he caughtit in his mouth as it came down. For the performanceof this remarkable feat he got a great deal of praisefrom the little girls, who said, "Good Nero! gooddog " and they patted him over and over again, andgave him more biscuit. So the time passed on, andthe hall clock struck four. Very soon after that, Nerogrowled-something was coming; Nero growled again." Yes, it is the carriage " they exclaimed ; the door-bell rang sharp and loud, and Nero hounded up andbarked. " Be quiet, Nero !" said Katie; "foolishdog-it is only my friends; I won't have you barkingat them." But still Nero did bark, so much so, thatthe footman took him away and shut him up in thepantry, and then ran to open the door, and to announce" Mrs. and the Miss Campbells !" and Mrs. and theMiss Campbells came in ; and then there was a gooddeal of kissing and welcoming and delight. Papa andAunt Emma came down and talked and entertainedMrs. Campbell, and the four little girls flew upstairs,where they could chatter and laugh, and do just whatthey liked. Miss Jones had said that she really couldnot consent to have no lessons done for the week thatthe two young Campbells were invited to remain; threehours a day she must have them quietly with her inthe school-room, and that she would not ask for more.S

LUCY CAMPBELL'S HIGI SPIRITS. 43Both Mr. Howard and Aunt Emma thought this veryreasonable, and Rose and Kate were told that it wasto be so. Perhaps they thought it a little hard; butyou see children are not always the best judges of whatis good for them, or of what will make them the mosthappy. There was a great deal more bustle and noiseand riot in the house that week than there usuallywas, for Lucy Campbell had tremendous spirits, andhaving no mamma near her to keep her in check, thenoise she made was really extraordinary-and she ledthe others on to do such wild things; but before Mr.Howard and Aunt Emma she was quiet and well be-haved; but not so with nurse, or always with MissJones. Really, Miss Jones was quite tired of saying,"Not so much talking, my dear children; silence, ifyou please, and let me speak a word to Susan " Itwas no use, the four young ones would keep silent forhalf a minute, and then Lucy would do some queerthing or other, and set them off giggling and laughingand talking again. It had been lovely weather, coldand clear and bright, and the children had been out agood deal; they had a little pony carriage of theirown, drawn by a shaggy brown Shetland pony, andthey had gone quite long expeditions in this everyday-getting out and having a good run when theywere cold; and they came home so fresh and rosy,their cheeks almost as crimson as the crimson gipsy-cloaks which papa had brought them from Londonfor their winter's wear. But one day it rained veryheavily, and every one was obliged to stay in thehouse. Aunt Emma was, as usual, busy writing in

41 ROSE AND KATE.her own room, when she heard a gentle tap at thedoor. " Come in, my little Rosie " she said, for sheknew Rosie's gentle tap very well, "and tell me whatyou want.""We want," said Rosie, "that you would let usall come to you for a bit, and that you should tell usat story, aunty darling; we can't go out, and we arerather tired of play.""Very well, my pet!" said aunty, "you may allcome, and I will see what I can do for you."" May we come now, aunty, because we are quiteready ?"" You may come in a quarter of an hour, and thenaunty will be quite ready; so run and tell theothers."And off she ran, to return in a quarter of an hourwith the others. In the meantime, Aunt Emma hadthought of a story, and had got some work ready forher little guests to do. In they came, quiet anddemure, and as though they never did and never couldmake any noise; but we know better, for we knowthat they could, and so did Aunt Emma, and thereforeshe set them all to work at once, as the best way ofinsuring quiet and preventing fidget. "Look, dearchildren !" she said, " I want you to help me withthis quilt; it is for old Dame Simpson, and the soonerwe get it done the better. See what beautiful patchesI have got; which of you will have this one, blue andyellow ? "" I will !" said Katie, "they are my favouritecolours."a

WORK IN AUNT EMMA'S ROOM. 45"There it is, then, Katie; now you are settled,"said aunty."Give me that scarlet and black, please!" saidLucy Campbell, "I like that, and think it muchprettier than the blue and yellow.""I am sure it is not half so pretty! " said Katie,quite offended." Many men, many minds, Katie !" said AuntEmma. "Now, Rosie, you may choose next. Pinkand green, or blue and white, which ""Which do you like best, Edith ?" said Rosie."I like the blue and white best," Edith answered."Then, dear aunty, please give the white and blueto Edith, and give me the pink and green.""I will do so, my little Rosie " said her aunt;." and whoever does her patchwork star the neatest,shall have this warm woollen comforter to give awayto some poor man."" I must do mine the neatest! " said one little voice,.on hearing this. "I hope I shall get it!" saidanother. "I'll try my best! " said a third; and soon.It had taken at least a quarter of an hour to settlethe patchwork, and to get the children fairly started;but by that time they were all seated and ready tobegin work, and Aunt Emma was ready to begin herstory."Aunty," said Kate, "please tell us that storyagain, which you told Rosie and me, about the Oakand the Laburnum. I know Lucy and Edith wouldlike to hear it."

46 ROSE AND KATE." Very wel] AZ-r, I will tell it you again if you wishfor it:-"THE OAK AND THE LADEURSUM." Once upon a time, there was a beautiful garden,and in this garden there were all sorts of lovely flowersand shrubs and trees. Many, many people used to comeand see this garden, and admire it very much. Onebeautiful, bright June day, there had been a greatgathering of children in that garden-it was a birth-day-and the birthday queen came into the midst ofthe flowers, to choose which of them she would haveto be woven into a garland for her head. She rejectedthis one, and she rejected that one; she could notmake up her mind, till she came to a splendid la-burnum-tree in full flower. Oh !' she said, I willhave a garland off you, you beautiful tree !' and soshe did. Oh, how pleased the laburnum was how itshook and waved its long graceful boughs, coveredwith bright golden flowers, and showered those flowersdown upon the green grass, as though it had such a,number to spare, that it did not know what to do withthem! By-and-by, the children all left the garden,and it was very still-the sun shone out hot, andlighted up the golden laburnum, and made it lookbrighter and more beautiful than ever, and more proudand silly about its own beauty. Close by thislaburnum, there grew a stately, grand oak, grim andgreen, and gloomy it was, but of great value. Nowthe laburnum despised this oak, and thought it so dulland so ugly, and thus it sDake to the oak- "

THE LABURNUM SPEAKS. 47" Spoke, aunty " said Kate, " trees don't speak.I know better than that.""In a story they can speak," said Lucy, "thoughit would be very funny to hear one speak, not in astory; but please go on, and tell us what it said tothe grim old oak."" It said this," continued Aunt Emma, " 'There youstand, so dull, and so brown; you have only leaves,you have no beautiful flowers; no one admires you.I wonder you don't die and make room for otherbeautiful creatures like me. How sad you must be!Why even the sun can't shine through your thickleaves I am glad I am not an oak.'" To all this the grand, grim old oak said not aword; perhaps it did think the laburnum very imperti-nent so to speak, and therefore gave no answer. Allthat day the laburnum kept tossing its lovely goldencurls about; and the children when they came later inthe afternoon were as full of admiration as ever forthe beautiful tree: but towards evening, there came achange; clouds darkened the sky, the wind rose, andit moaned and whistled through the trees; the leavesshook, and the beautiful laburnum no longer freelydropped its lovely golden flowers down to the ground,but they were rudely and remorselessly shaken off bythe wind, which each moment blew stronger andstronger. The grey, grim oak shuddered and sighed,and said in a low deep voice, There is an awfulstorm at hand.' These words of the stern steady oakmade the poor laburnum tremble and start. Therewas nothing_ it drnadul so much as a storm, and it felt

48 ROSE AND KATE.that one was coming. And come it did-thunder, lightning, hail, pitiless rain, and fitful violent gusts of wind.All night this continued, and in the morn-oh whata change had passed, over that garden: the smoothgrass was covered with boughs and branches torn fromthe trees; the flowers were dead, or dying; the wholescene was one of desolation and destruction. All daythe gardeners were busy repairing, restoring, andsetting straight. The old oak looked none the worse,but on the contrary, rather more fresh and greenthan usual; but the laburnum-poor, poor laburnum !its beauty was gone, and gone for ever; all its lovelyflowers lay, a tangled drenched heap, on the ground.Those long branches which it had yesterday waved toand fro, glittering in their golden beauty, were brokenoff, and tossed about rudely. It was a crushed andmangled tree-the victim of the storm. The sternand grim oak turned and looked at it and exclaimed,' Alas, poor vain tree where is your beauty now ? 'The laburnum had no heart to speak; all day long itkept shedding its tears of rain upon its dead flowers,and in the evening, when the owner of that gardencame round with the gardener to see all the mischiefwhich the storm of the preceding night had done, hiseye caught sight of the miserable shattered laburnum,' Ah said he, I have been wishing for some time tomove that laburnum, and so give more room to theoak, but I hesitated, because it was in such full beauty,but now that is quite gone, it will never recover fromthe effects of this storm, so you may cut it down atonce, the sooner the better, as that oak is far too

THE END OF THE LABURNULM. 49valuable to be cramped a day longer than is necessary.'Having said these words, he passed on with the gar-dener, little thinking of how the poor laburnum'sheart was bleeding within it, and how sad it was tobe thus doomed to death. In the early morning ofthe next day, hack, hack, hack, was heard for halfan hour all through the garden, and then a greatcrash, and a mighty fall, and down to the earth camethe once vain and beautiful laburnum. It had neveragain long and waving boughs of golden gracefulflowers; the children never praised it again; the oaknever heard its mocking voice more : there for a whileit lay, a branchless trunk, and then was carried offand deposited in the carpenter's shop, till some usecould be found for it. And so ends the story of the'Oak and the Laburnum.'""Thank you, thank you, dear aunt!" said thechildren."I can't help being very sorry for the laburnum,said Rosie, " it certainly ought not to have been sovain; but it was very hard upon it to cut itdown.""We have such a beautiful laburnum in our gar-den, do you know, Rosie ?" said Lucy, "it grows inthe corner nearest to the cathedral. I wonder if it isvain ? When its flowers come again I think it would bea very good plan to go and tell it this story."" Silly child !" here broke in Edith, "just as thoughit could listen."" I am not silly at all, Edith; and I won't have youcall me so," answered Lucy, "you may just as wellE

0 nose AND KATE.say that Aunt Emma was silly, for saying that theoak and the laburnum could speak."" How dare you use such a word to darling AuntEmma," said Rosie, very indignantly; " why, don't youknow that things in stories are not at all like whatare out of stories, and that that is what makes themso nice-only foolish little children ever think storiesare true.""Well, Miss Wisdom," said Lucy, " I never said Ithought stories were true; neither did I say-"But she was not allowed to finish her sentence, forAunt Emma, thinking that if the little tongues werepermitted to rattle on in this way, unstopped, a quarrelwould very likely be the consequence, put an end toit all, and said-"That will do, dears, we won't have this matterdiscussed any more, but I tell you what you shall do.You shall all of you say what you would choose, sup-posing a fairy knocked at this door, this very moment,and came in and stood before each little girl in turn,and put the wishing-cap on her head, and said, Now,little lady, you may wish for something, and whateveryou wish for you shall have.' ""Oh, dear! " said all the children, "how nice thatwould be; what beautiful things we would ask for !"" Lucy, you begin then," said Aunt Emma. "Whatwould you wish for ? I give you one minute to makeup your mind : silence !"And the children kept quite silent, watching Lucy.Aunt Emma looked at her watch-a minute was gone," Now, Lucy, what is it ?" asked Aunt Emma.

ALL THE CHILDREN WISH. 01"I am not nearly ready," answered Lucy; "I havenot chosen a bit; I want so many things, I can'tpossibly say in such a hurry, which I will have."" I only gave you a minute, Lucy, and that time isgone, so you have lost your chance;" but seeing Lucy'seyes fill up with tears, and that she was greatly dis-appointed, kind Aunt Emma gave her another trial.All were silent again-a minute more passed-andLucy exclaimed: "I will have something! I willhave a whole long purse full of gold."" So that would be your answer, would it, Lucy ?"said Aunt Emma; "and now we will hear what Rosiehas to say. Think, Rosie, for one minute, and nomore." Rosie thought-and then she looked andasked:"Aunt Emma, may I whisper it in your ear "" You may, love, as the fairy is not here."And Rosie jumped up, leaned over the back ofAunt Emma's chair, clasped her arms round her neckand whispered-but what, we can't say-because wedid not hear, and no one heard but Aunt Emma, andshe never told; and so we can't know what Rosiewished for. She got a very loving kiss from heraunt, and jumped down, and sat on her own low seatagain."That is not fair!" said Edith, "I have a greatmind not to wish at all, if I may not hear what Rosiesaid.""Do as you like, Edith. I will give you yourminute, and then you may wish or not, as youchoose."E 3

52 ROSE AND KATE.So Aunt Emma again looked at her watch for aminute, and when the minute was over, she asked," Have you any wish, Edith ? What would you have,if you could ?""I have got a wish; it is, that I might never doany lessons at all, but play and do what I liked allday long.""Oh, Edith !" said the children. "Oh, Edith "echoed Aunt Emma. " What a good thing it is thatyour wish can't be gratified, and that you can't bemade the most unhappy, and the most disagreeablelittle girl that ever lived in the world. I am so gladthe fairy is not really here, for your sake. Now,Katie, it is your turn-think a minute, and then letus hear what your wish is.""I do not mean to think at all, because I knowquite well what it is!" exclaimed Katie. "I wishfor the doll which walks.""Katie !" screamed out Lucy, " what nonsense !no doll walks !""A doll does walk," replied little Miss Katie tothis. "I know a girl who has seen it; it walked allalong a table, and that is the doll I wish for.""So you are not content with the beautiful waxdoll papa gave you on your .ir1,li.," said AuntEmma."Yes, aunty. I am very well contented with that,and am so fond of it! but you see it does not walk,and that's why I wished for the other. What fun itwould be to send dolly out for a walk all by herself.""Wind her up," said Aunt Emma, "and then tell

SUSAN REFUSES TO WISH. 53her to go; but Katie, she would never be able to takea long walk-only a very short one-perhaps acrossthe table, and no more.""I should like to see this wonderful doll verymuch," exclaimed Rosie. " Have you seen it, aunty?"" No, dear child, but I have heard about it; andKatie says quite rightly, that there is such a doll tobe seen."Just at this moment, Susan came in; she wasgreeted by all the children with the cry, " Sue Sue !we have been wishing for what we should each likebest in the world, and now you must come and wish."But Miss Susan was far too old, and far too much ofa grown-up young lady, to enter into this child's"game; so she said very grandly, "I only camewith a message from papa to Aunt Emma. I amnot going to wish; I should not think of being sofoolish. It is all very well for little children like youto play at these games." And then sister Susan gaveher message and went away." Aunty," said Kate, when she was gone, " you arenot a bit too old to wish, and so what should you askthe fairy to give you ?"" Suppose I was to wish," answered Aunt Emma,"that I was really a fairy, and was able to give eachlittle girl that thing which she desired, Lucy shouldthen have her great purse full of gold; Rosie shouldhave the thing she most desires, though we will not saywhat it is; Edith too, she should never be obliged todo any more lessons, she should always do just whatshe liked ; and a very good thing it is for her, that 1

54 EOSE AND KATE.am not a fairy, and can't do this for her, because if Icould, oh! what an unhappy little girl I shouldmake her; and Katie, you then should have the doll"which walks. Have you had enough of this wishing,now, dears ? Do you think pussy, who lies there soquiet and still before the fire ever wished for any-thing? ""Oh, no aunty, of course she never did.""I don't know that; " said Lucy, "perhaps, Edith,she has often wished for a mouse, when she could notget one."" Speaking of pussy," Aunt Emma went on, " re-minds me of a very funny story I once read about acat-a story you need not believe, except you wish todo so; neither need you hear it unless you wish todo so."" We do wish it, aunty we do wish it 1" thechildren exclaimed."Then this is it," said aunty."Once upon a time, a gentleman was riding, quitein the gloom of the evening, through a dark forest.He was going home, and he was obliged to passthrough this forest; he felt uneasy and rather fright-ened at the gloom, and the stillness, and the solitude,and he made his horse go as quick as ever it could ;but the horse could not get on quickly, for the road wasso bad, and then great branches hung down from thetall, tall trees, and swept nearly to the ground ; and theruts were almost knee deep, and altogether, it wasvery hard work riding through this forest. The horseand its rider had got on a good way,-still there lay a

Ci.:IALDAI AND GIUMALKIN. D5dark, dark bit before they were out of the forest-when the gentleman heard a scream, and a rustling inthe branches of the tree above his head; then aplunge, and down on his horse's neck came a greatcreature. He was terribly frightened; his heart wentpit-a-pat, pit-a-pat; and the horse, too, trembled fromhead to foot."" Oh, aunty, what was this great creature ? I feelquite frightened myself," said Kate."Two great green eyes," Aunt Emma went on,"looked up into the gentleman's face-dark as it was,he could see those eyes-and then he heard a voice say,' Tell Grimaldi that Grimalkin is dead.' That was all.The great black cat, for such it was-for just at thatmoment the moon shone out from the clouds, andshowed him that it was a cat-jumped from off thehorse's neck, away it went, scrambling from boughto bough, and the horse and its rider went on theirway; and right glad they both were to get out ofthe wood. How pleasant and cheerful it was forthat gentleman, when he arrived at his own home,and stepped into his comfortable room, where a firewas burning brightly, and a warm supper was ready,and a happy good wife waiting to hear all he hadto say And no sooner did they sit down together tosupper, than he began to tell her what had befallenhim in the forest. On the hearth-rug, apparently fastasleep, lay a splendid white cat, looking very lazy andcomfortable, and very sleek, and clean, and fat. Well,the gentleman told his wife about the black catjumping down on his horse's neck, and how it had

5 6 ROSE AND KATE.said, Tell Grimaldi that Grimalkin is dead.' He hadhardly said these words, when up sprang the whitecat, and exclaimed, 'Is Grimalkin dead then I amking of the cats and away he went; but whither, orhow, no one could say-he disappeared. Every doorwas shut, and every window was shut, but yet hewent, and no one saw that splendid white cat again."" Oh, dear, how I do like these odd stories " wasRosie's exclamation, when this very odd story wasfinished."Have you got any more to tell us ?" said Katie;and just as she said it, there came a maid to the door,saying, "If you please, young ladies, tea is quiteready."" So they were obliged to go at once, but not tillthey had asked, " May we come again to-morrow "and Aunt Emma said " Yes; on this condition-thatyou each tell me a story, instead of my telling youone. So you must set about, and think of yourstories at once. And now be off with you, as fast asyou can."

THE CHILDREN'S STORIES. 57CHAPTER V.E XACTLY at five o'clock the next afternoon, thechildren came, patchwork in hand, to AuntEmma's room. She greeted them with smiles andkisses, and also with a few very nice bonbons, andthen she seated them down to their work. " 1 sup-pose," she said, "all the patchwork stars will befinished to day, and the neatest worker will be claim-ing the prize "" Oh, yes aunty," replied Rosie, "we all mean toget our stars done to-day, and do you know, every oneof us has fixed upon some poor man to give thatwarm comforter to, if we get it ?"" Do you mean, dears, you have all fixed upon the-same man, or each on a different one 1"" Each upon a different one," aunty; " because, youknow, if we had chosen the same, it would not havebeen half the fun to have tried for it; but now, we-have each got our pet old man-have we not 1"" Oh, indeed we have," said Lucy, " and I am quitesure .that nobody can want it half so much as my oldman does; he is so r t .L...lly poor, and so dirty, thatI hate going into his cottage; but still, I will go togive it him, if I can get it.""I am sure," Edith then said, "that I would not

58 ROSE AND KATE.give it to Lucy's dirty old man. Mine is as clean asclean can be; and he would take such care of it-hewould lock it up in his chest and never wear it. Iknow he would, because Emma, our nursery-maid, ishis grand-daughter, and she told me that her grand-father had all sorts of nice things locked up in hischest."" Then, dear Edith, I don't think that he wants thiscomforter," said Aunt Emma; "still, I feel with you,that I had rather a clean old man had it, than adirty one. Rosie and Katie, have you each got afavourite 1 ""We have," said Rosie, "I want it for FatherSmith, because of his bad cough.""And I," said Katie, " want it for Alice Hunter'sfather, because he gave me such beautiful carnationsfor my garden. Aunty, which of us, do you think,will get it "" I really can't say, love," answered aunty; "butdo you remember my bargain with you all ? Are yourstories ready "" Oh, no, they are not; at least mine is not," saidLucy. " I don't know how to tell a story. I can'tbegin, and I can't go on, and I can't end: so youmust please excuse me. Do tell one for me !"" Oh, yes, please do " echoed the children; "andplease tell us about the old woman in the vinegar-bottle.""Why, don't you know that story by heart, littleones 1" answered Aunt Emma; "I have told it to youso many times."

THE OLD WOMAN AND TIE VINEGAu-BOTTLE. 59" Yes, aunty, you have told it often to me and toKatie, but you have never told it to Lucy and Edith,and they both want to hear it, and we are not at alltired of it."" Then must it really be so, and must Aunt Emmabe the story-teller again to night ?""Aunt Emma, dear, you must begin," said Katie,"both Rosie and I have got a story ready for by-and-by."" Those little children who know the history of theold woman who lived in the vinegar-bottle, need notlisten to it again, except they like; those who don'tknow it will most certainly like to hear it, so thisis it:-" There was once an old woman, and she lived in avinegar-bottle; and she got in and out of this bottleby a ladder. One day, as she was sweeping hervinegar-bottle, she found a silver penny-oh she wasso pleased. She set off instantly to market, carryinga basket with her, to see what she could get for hersilver penny : she trudged along as proud and happyas a queen. As she went, she met a woman with somepretty little fish to sell. I'll give you one of these,missus,' said the fish-woman to her, 'for your silverpenny.' 'Very well;' said the other, 'here's my penny,and I'll have the fish.'" The fish was popped into the basket, and the oldwoman was about to return home, to make a fire inher vinegar-bottle, and to cook the fish for dinner."But the fish put up its little head out of thebasket, and said in a gentle, entreating voice, Please

60 ROSE AND KATE.to put me into the water please to put me into thewater The old woman was so touched by this gentlecry, and so surprised, that she went straight away to astream which ran close by, and put the fish into thewater. No sooner had she done this, than the waterbegan to bubble, bubble, bubble, and a beautiful,bright, gentle fairy stood before her, having risen outof the stream. My good woman,' said the fairy, Iam the little fish that you put into the stream, andnow you may ask me for whatever you like, and I willgive it you.' The old woman was so much astonishedthat for a minute or two she could not speak-she hadnever seen a fairy before, and she felt very shy andvery much frightened; but the fairy was so gentle,and waited so patiently, that she took courage, andventured to say, 'Please, good fairy, to give me ahouse, for I have only a vinegar-bottle to live in 1''Very well, my good woman,' said the fairy, 'gohome, and you will find one;' and the fairy disap-peared beneath the clear sparkling water. The oldwoman went home as fast as her legs could carry her,and there, sure enough, instead of a vinegar-bottle, shefound a most comfortable cottage, with a kitchen anda parlour down-stairs, and two bedrooms over them up-stairs. Oh, how pleased she was she tried to makethe furniture she had had in the vinegar-bottle do forthe new house, but she found that she really could not,it was so shabby; and, besides, there was so little ofit; for what room for furniture could there be in avinegar-bottle For two or three days the old womanstayed quietly at home in her new house, and then she

THE OLD WOMAN CALLS THE FAIRY. 61said to herself, 'I shall go down to the side of thestream and call the fairy, and see if she will give mesomething more.' So down she went: when she gotthere, she hesitated a little, feeling rather alarmed,-then she called in a very low voice, Fairy Fairy !'and the water began to bubble, bubble, bubble, andthe fairy rose up, and stood before her. What doyou want, my good woman ?' said the fairy. Why,ma'am, if you please,' answered the old woman, 'youhave been so good as to give me the house, and I haveno furniture fit to put in it; will you now be so goodas to give me furniture for it i' Go home, and youwill find some !' said the fairy, and sank down be-neath the water. And home the old lady trudged,and it was all true such beautiful furniture, in thekitchen, in the parlour, and in both the bedrooms.For some days nothing could exceed the old woman'spleasure and satisfaction in her house and new furni-ture; then suddenly she began to wish for somethingmore, and down again she went to the side of thestream, and called, without a moment's hesitation, andin a loud voice, Fairy! Fairy !' and the water beganto bubble, bubble, bubble, and the fairy rose up andstood before her. Well, my good woman !' she said,'and what is it now that you want ?' Well, ma'am,if you please,' answered the old woman, 'you see youhave been so very kind as to give me both the houseand furniture, but as I am getting old, I can't takeproper care of them ; will you be so good as to giveme a maid to help me? Very well!' answered thefairy, go home and you will find one.' So home she

62 ROSE AND KATE.went, mightily pleased and very proud; and there,the first thing that she saw was a tidy little maid,broom in hand, and ready to begin and sweep out thehouse and clean down the furniture. This went onfor a week, and the old woman appeared to have allthat she could desire, and her neighbours were veryenvious of her. Then again she began to wish, andagain she went down to the side of the stream, andagain she called in a loud, commanding voice, Fairy !Fairy !' and the water began to bubble, bubble, bub-ble, and the fairy rose up and stood before her. Well,old woman!' she said, 'what do you want moreWhat brings you here to-day ?' The fairy lookedgrave, and not so well pleased as before. Then re-plied the old woman, Why, ma'am, you see you havebeen so very good to me, and have given me a houseand furniture, and a maid, and now, if you please,give me a cart and horse to take me to market.' Gohome,' said the fairy, and you will find them; butbeware of discontent!' and then she sank down be-neath the stream, with a very grave look. The oldwoman was rather frightened at the words and look ofthe fairy. She went home more slowly this time, andthought now she would be satisfied with what she hadgot. At the door of the house she found, on herarrival, a capital covered cart, and a quiet brown nagto draw it, and in she got, she and her maid, and theyhad a good jaunt before their dinner. On market-days she and her maid went in this cart to the nearesttown, and all her neighbours called her The fortunateold lady !' and so she was and how happy she might

SENT BACK TO THE VINEGAR-BOTTLE. 63have been could she have been content; but that isexactly what she was not. In a short time, again shebegan to wish for something that she had not got-and a very extraordinary something it was this time,as you shall hear. The fairy's grave looks and gravewords were forgotten, and down she went to the edgeof the stream, and called as usual, 'Fairy! Fairy!'and the water began to bubble, bubble, bubble, andthe fairy rose up and stood before her. My goodwoman, what more can you possibly want from me to-day?' said the fairy, looking exceedingly stern. Theold woman did feel frightened indeed, but she went onin spite of this, and said, Why, if you please, goodfairy, you have been so very kind to me, that I reallydo not think I ought to ride about just like all theother women in the neighbourhood do in a covered cart,so, if you please, will you give me a coach and four ?'' What!' said the fairy, very angrily, 'what morewill you ask for ? Go home to your vinegar-bottle!'and down she sank, down beneath the water, never torise up again at the call of that old woman. And theold woman went home, trembling and afraid, andwhen she got there, alas! what did she see ? Only herold vinegar-bottle, with its ladder to get in and itsladder to get out. The house was gone-the furniturewas gone-the maid was gone-the covered cart andhorse were gone The vinegar-bottle alone was left,and in that bottle she passed all the rest of herdays.""Capital! capital !" exclaimed Lucy. "I call thata first-rate story But what a goose that old woman

64 ROSE AND KATE."was couldn't she have done without that carriageand four Poor old thing to have to go back to hervinegar-bottle-I am quite sorry for her.""So am I, Lucy!" said Rose; " how vexed shemust have been with herself! "" And now, Rosie," asked Aunt Emma, "have yougot a story to tell me in return for this ? because thisI told instead of Lucy telling one, as she said she reallycould not do it."" I think I could tell you that about the Raven andthe Dove !" replied little Rosie. "I don't rememberany other just this minute."" Let us have that, Rosie I " said the three children." Begin-what is it about ?""Once upon a time," then began Rosie, " there wasa gentleman and a lady, and they had two children-aboy and a girl. The boy's name was Charles, and thegirl's name was Lizzy. They were very good childrenin general, and did what they were told; but sometimesthey were exceedingly naughty, and then their mammaand papa were very much distressed. One day theirpapa brought them home a beautiful white dove and anice large new cage; and he said to them, My dearlittle children, I have brought you home this beautifuldove; it is to live in your nursery-and you musttake care of it and feed it, and be very kind to it; butif I hear you two quarrelling and fighting like naughtychildren, then I shall take the dove quite away, andput a black raven in its stead.' Oh !' said Charley,'we will never quarrel again, papa; we will not haveour beautiful cooing dove taken away, and a horrid'&lt;*

LITTLE ROSIE'S StORY. 65raven, which says 'caw caw !' put in its place.' No, we won't, indeed! then said Lizzy. I shall bevery glad if this is so,' said the children's papa, andthen they all went away. Now for some days thesetwo children were very good-quite as good as gold:they did not do anything naughty; they had theirlovely dove, and they played with it, and they werevery happy; but I am sorry to say this did not con-tinue, for one day, as their papa sat in his study, heheard strange noises from the garden-lie heard loudand angry voices, and then he heard a scream-hejumped up and went out, and what do you think hesaw T""What ? " said Rosie's hearers. " Do go on ""He saw Lizzie tied tight to a tree, kicking andscreaming, and Charlie standing by her, holding therope with which he had tied her to the tree in hishands, and laughing at her, as she kicked and screamed.' What does all this mean said their papa, in a veryangry voice, 'what are you about, children ?' Shebeat me,' said Charlie, and she called me names-andshe was very naughty, and so I tied her to the tree.'' I was not naughty at all-it was all you, you wickedboy !' exclaimed Lizzie. Papa, make him untie me;the rope hurts me dreadfully!' and then she began toscream again. Charles, give me that rope,' said theirpapa, and go into the house, into my study.' Charlesdid not move ; he looked very naughty. 'Do what Ibid you directly, Charles !' and then their papa tookthe rope out of Charles's hand, and looked at him verygravely, and said, I am very sorry you are so naughty

66 ROSE AND KATE.-try to be good-go, as I told you, into my study!'and Charles went. Then Lizzie was untied, and she wasreally in a great passion. She said, That wicked boy;I will never speak to him again-look how he hashurt me, papa !' holding up her hands. I hope youwill punish him very much indeed.' Hush Lizzie,'said her papa, 'I won't have you talking in this way ;you have both been very naughty, and I am exceed-ingly displeased with you both.' 'I was not naughty,papa; it was all Charlie-he wanted me to be hisslave, and I would not.' Lizzie,' said her papa, holdyour tongue; when you are more quiet and moregood than you are now, I will hear what you have gotto say-but not now. Come with me!' So theirpapa took them both into his study, and made themstay there till they were quiet. Then he talked tothem, and he told them what a dreadful thing it wasto quarrel and to fight in the way they had been doing;how, if they would go on so, they might some day hurteach other very much indeed, and make their dearmamma and papa so unhappy; and that God wouldcease to love them, and they would be miserable. Hetold them how it was angry passion that made Cainkill his brother Abel-he talked to them very seriouslyindeed-and then he told them that for a whole weekthey would not be allowed to play together in thegarden-that they should not go out at all, exceptwith him or with their mamma-that they were notto be trusted, and so they must be punished. Andnow,' when he had done talking, he said,' you may goupstairs, my de childrenre' And they went upstairs,

THE RAVEN TAKES THE DOVE'S PLACE. 67very slowly and quietly, and I am glad to tell you thatoutside the nursery-door they kissed each other, andCharlie said, Lizzie, dear, I won't hurt you again, andtie you to a tree. Will you forgive me for what I didto-day Yes, Charlie, I will!' answered Lizzie,'and I will not tease you, or call you names again.'Then they went into their nursery, and lo! the beau-tiful white dove, which said coo! coo! coo!' was gone,and in its stead was a black, black raven, which said' caw caw caw !' Oh, the children were sorry in-deed-they burst out crying, and said to their papa,who came in at that moment, to see how they werebehaving themselves, 'Oh, papa! our dove is gone,and this horrid raven come instead-do take it away,and let us have our beautiful dove back-we are quitegood now, and don't mean to quarrel any more-wehate this raven I can't take it away yet,' answeredtheir papa, nor can I let you have the dove back tillI see what kind of little children you intend to be-ifyou keep your word, and don't quarrel for a wholemonth, then the beautiful dove shall come back; andI expect that you will feed the raven, and take care ofit-it must remind you every day of your sad habit ofquarrelling, and teach you to watch against it.' Sothe raven stayed, and for a whole month the childrendid not see the sweet white dove-they did not get abit fond of the raven, though they did feed it; andevery day they wished for their dove. But do youknow that they really did keep their 'w-.irl+-j-h-y didnot quarrel; and when a whole month was gone, oneday, as they came in from their walk, beiold theirr24

68 ROSE AND KATE.beautiful dove was come back, and the black uglyraven was gone. Oh, they jumped for joy-theyran down into the drawing-room and kissed both theirmamma and papa, and said, Our dove is come back-the nasty raven is gone, and we are so happy !' AndI shall be so happy, my dear little Charlie and Lizzie,'said their papa, if I am never obliged to take the doveaway again, and to put back the raven.' And do youknow he never was; and that is the end of my story,"said Rosie." Very good, dear Rosie !" said Aunt Emma; "youwill be a capital story-teller in time, I think. I havebeen quite interested in your story.""And so have I!" " And so have I!" "Andsohave I !" exclaimed at the same moment Lucy, andEdith, and Kate. "And now, who comes next?-you,Edith !" said Kate, "and then me."" Oh " Edith answered, " I really can't tell one-indeed I can't! I don't know any to tell-please,Aunt Emma, tell one for me.""That's not fair " said Kate." It is quite fair " answered Edith ; "she told onefor Lucy-and Lucy is eight, and I am only seven.Aunt Emma, please tell my story.""But," said Aunt Emma, "supposing I have notgot one to tell, what's to happen then? ""You always have got one to tell!" said Edith."I am sure you have now.""Aunty," whispered Katie, "tell us about the littlegirl with the fairy godmother-that is what I wanted

THE FAIRY GODMOTHER. C9to tell; but please to tell it for me, and then it will dofor Edith and me, and be quite fair.""Must it be so ? " said aunty. "Then I will trywhat I can do."" Once upon a time, there was a little princess, andshe had a fairy godmother. Now this fairy godmotherwhispered into her ear one day, when she was quite ababy, lying in her pink silk-and-lace cot, that every-thing she wished for she should have; and baby re-membered this promise, and very soon began to wishfor all sorts of things. Before she was two years oldshe had learned to want such a number of things, asyou would scarcely believe. She used to stamp hertiny feet, clap her tiny hands, and call with her babyvoice, Fairy Godmother! Fairy Godmother! Come !'and when the fairy came she would say, Me wantthis !' or 'Me want that! Give me something !' andsomething was always given her. As she grew older,her wants grew more, and she called upon her fairy god-mother oftener and oftener. She never took care of any-thing, because she knew whatever she broke she couldget again, and I am sorry to tell you, my dear children,that she never hardly asked for anything for otherchildren-it was always for herself; in short, she wasthe most selfish, spoiled, disagreeable, and discontentedlittle princess that ever lived. Oh, how very much theKing and the Queen did wish that they had not beggedthe fairy to be her godmother! They were weepingover their naughty and spoiled child one day, whenthe fairy stood before them, and said, 'You are un-

70 tOSE AND KATE.happy about your little daughter the princess ? Andwell you may be-if she grows up as she is now, shewill be a great trouble to you. I am going a longjourney, to see the Queen of the Fairies-I may bekept there for a great while, and all that time I shallnot be able to see your daughter, or to hear her call.I shall give her into the charge of my great aunt, whosename is "Stern " and she will look after her. Nowsend for your daughter, that I may speak to her, andbid her farewell.' The princess came, and began, asusual, to ask for some gift. The fairy stopped her,and said, You will have no more gifts from me formany years-you have not taken care of the beautifulthings which I have given you-you have wasted them-you have spoiled them-you have never given any-thing away-you have grown selfish and discontented,and so I am come to bid you a long farewell. Someday, perhaps, I may see you again, but that will dependupon yourself, and whether you grow to be more kind,more contented, more generous!' and the fairy, whenshe had said this, vanished. At first, the little princesscould not believe that when she stamped, and whenshe called 'Fairy Godmother !' no one would come.She stamped, and called, and clapped her hands oneday, till she had worked herself up into a great pas-sion; but no fairy godmother came. At length shesaw a grave little old fairy standing by her, and say-ing,' Hush! princess, hush! this will never do-bestill, and know that your fairy godmother will notcome again!' 'But I want her-I want her!'answered the wilful princess 'I will have her and

FAIRY STERN'S TEACHING. 71I'll stamp till she comes.' 'Then you may stamp yourfeet off !' said the old lady, for she will not come-she has given you a great many-too many things,and you are to have no more ; and I now give you anexceedingly bad head-ache, that you may rememberthis fit of passion, and not indulge in it again.' Andthen she touched the princess's head with her wand,and left her. Oh, dear me how very, very bad the poorprincess's head was; how she moaned, how she tossedon her bed; how she cried After many hours' pain,the fairy Stern appeared again, and said, I hope youhave learned your lesson Now I will cure yourhead.' She then touched her head once again withher wand, and in a moment the pain was gone.Several times over, Fairy Stern had to send these badhead-aches, before the princess would cease to call, andto stamp, and to clap for her godmother. At last shegave it up, and she also began to take care of thethings which were left to her when she found shecould get no more. She had not yet learned to giveanything away to another-she hoarded everythingup for herself; but Fairy Stern did not long leave herin peace to go on in this bad way. She sent a mightywind, which blew all through that part of the palacewhere the princess lived. This wind blew in all thewindows, and opened all the doors, and swept awaythose beautiful things which had been the gifts of thefairy godmother to the young princess. Some werebroken-some were whirled away, and never seenagain; some were blown up the chimney, othersthrough the doors, and all were spoiled. When the

72 ROSE AND KATE.wind ceased, and the princess returned to her apart-ments, all her beautiful treasures were either gone,smashed, or quite destroyed." Oh, how bitterly she cried and wept, and wrungher hands, and thought of that time when she couldhave had them all again by wishing; but now it was nouse to wish-she sat down in despair. Then againappeared Fairy Stern, and said, This wind has beensent to destroy all your treasures, because you hoardedthem for yourself alone. When you have learnt togive, then good things will be given to you again!'and the fairy vanished. It was really quite sad to seehow the little princess pined and mourned after herbeautiful lost treasures. She was so lonely, for shehad not learned to make friends, and to love others-other little children whom she had once despised, be-cause they were not princesses, and had not a fairygodmother, now came kindly and gently to her, andoffered small gifts, which she was exceedingly glad toreceive, though she was yet too proud to show her joy;but by degrees she began to feel it was very nice to bekindly treated, and to have pretty things given her,even by these children, who were not princesses-andshe really began to love them, and to thank them veryheartily; and then they loved her more, and grewhappy with her. And now, whenever the princesscould find one of her lost treasures, which she some-times did, instead of keeping it for herself, she wouldgive it away to one of her little friends. She waslearning to be generous, and she was becoming somuch happier than she used to be when she had such

THE PRINCESS BREAKS HER LEG. 73lots of things that she did not know what to do withthem. One day, just at this time, she met with a sadaccident-she fell down stairs and broke her leg. Thepain was very hard to bear, and she was sadly im-patient; but Fairy Stern again appeared, and spoketo her, saying, I made you break your leg, on pur-pose to teach you patience and gentleness. Now,princess, you must learn these lessons-I shall sootheyour pain whenever you try to be patient-if you callme gently and kindly, I shall come when you want me-I promised your godmother to be your friend whenshe was away, and I have kept my word, and havebeen a good friend to you, though perhaps you don'tyet know it; and now, when you really want me, Ishall come and help you, if you call me properly andgently.' Then she soothed the pain of the broken legwith her wand, and as she went away she dropped tbunch of such charming flowers on the bed of the poorlame princess, that it took her a long time to examineand admire them, and made her forget her pain. Bydegrees the princess got qpite attached to Fairy Stern,and often and often, when she was in pain, she wouldcall 'Fairy Stern! Fairy Stern!' very gently, andFairy Stern was sure to come, and as sure to do hergood in one way or another. For many months thepoor young princess was lame, but all that time shewas learrg to be patient, to be gentle, to be sothankful for kindness, and so grateful to others, thatwhen she did get well, she was quite changed; such asweet princess was seldom seen--everyone loved her;and one day--it was the day she was seventeen-who

74 ROSE AND KATE.should she see standing on the window-sill, all whiteand shining, but her own fairy godmother? There wasa loving greeting between these two; they were veryglad to see each other again, and the fairy said, 'Mygreat aunt, Fairy Stern, has resigned the power I gaveher over you into my hands, and now I shall often benear you, and give you what you wish for.' 'But,'said the princess, I am afraid of wishing for things,lest I should do myself harm-I will leave it to youto give me what you like, and I will not wish for any-thing.' Very well!' said the fairy, let it be so foryourself; but for others I still leave you the power towish, and the promise that those wishes shall be ful-filled: there may come a day when you will be veryglad to exercise this power.' And that day did come,for, not long after this, there arrived at the princess'sfather's Court such a noble young prince, as beautifulas the day, and as good as he was beautiful; and, doyou know, he was sent by the fairy godmother to bethe husband of the lovely princess-and so they weremarried, and he carried her away to his own country,and before long they two became King and Queen ofthat great country; and then the fairy godmother wasvery often wanted to help those who were in distress,to give gifts to the poor, health to the sick, and to bethe friend of the good Queen herself, and her mosttrusted counsellor. Many, many years di the Kingand Queen live and reign-they loved Tach otherdearly, and all their subjects loved them, and when.they died there was not a dry eye in all that kingdom.

MISS JONES COMES HERSELF. 75And here I finish my story of the princess who hadthe fairy godmother."A great many thanks greeted Aunt Emma as shefinished her story, but the children had no time to,make any remarks about it, because Miss Jones her-self knocked at the door, and said, on coming in,"My dear children, I sent for you ten minutes ago;tea has been waiting all this time-why did you notcome "" Oh, Miss Jones," said Aunt Emma, " you mustplease to forgive us this time; it was my fault, wewere so busy, that we did not notice the summons totea.""I heard it very plainly," whispered Lucy, "but Iwas not going to tell."" I heard it too," said Edith, " but we get tea everyday, and we don't get stories every day, so I went onlistening.""Aunty!" here exclaimed Kate, "we have allfinished our patches, and we want you to say whoseis the neatest; may we come after tea ""No, certainly not; there are many gentlemen andladies coming to dinner, and you have left Aunty verylittle time to make herself beautiful. Now go, all ofyou "And they went-but Lucy could not let AuntEmma'z w.:4, pass without a comment which calledforth ER,:- s nger, for Lucy began, when they wereseated at tea, in this way :-"Just as though Aunt Emma could make herself

76 ROSE AND KATE.beautiful; fancy an old lady beautiful -it is onlychildren and young ladies that are beautiful; I meanto be very beautiful when I grow up "" You will never be half so beautiful as Aunt Emmais !" exclaimed Rosie, indignantly, "and then youknow, Lucy, she only said that in joke-and besides,she is beautiful, isn't she, papa ? " for Mr. Howard atthat moment came into the room."What are these eager voices talking about ?" askedMr. Howard; "what were you appealing to me for ?I don't know what you were discussing."" It is about Aunt Emma we were talking," an-swered Rosie. "Lucy says she is not beautiful, and Isay she is. Isn't she, papa ?""I think her beautiful, my darling little Rosie,and always have thought her so, and I hope you willalways do the same.""I am sure I shall, papa," said Rosie; "Lucy saysonly children and girls are beautiful; but I know thatis not true."" It is not at all true, Rosie; Lucy is quite wrong,in my opinion," said Mr. Howard. " Children andyoung girls have one kind of beauty, and Aunt Emmahas another. She has such soft kind eyes, and sucha sweet smile, and such a graceful look and manner;and if any of the little girls here present are half asnice, and sweet-looking, and dear as Aunt Emmais when they come to be her age, they may thinkthemselves very well off. But I have no more timeto give you now, dears. I came to ask Miss Jones tobring all four little maidens down to the drawing-

DRESSING FOR THE PARTY. 77room, after our dinner, and to allow you to sit uplater than usual."" Oh thank you, thank you, darling papa," saidRosie and Kate, "we do enjoy coming down to aparty.""I hope you do, Lucy and Edith ?"Lucy and Edith both said that they did, aet thatthey were very glad that Mr. Howard had asked leavefor them to come down.Nurse had quite a piece of business to get the fourgirls dressed that evening-they were in such highspirits and so wild; she threatened once or twice tosend for Miss Jones, for she could not keep order.Lucy was the great culprit; she kept making pancakeson the floor with her clean white stiff petticoat, andtelling the others they could not do it, which of coursemade them say they could, and down they squatted.Then they began to spin round like teetotums, ruf-fling their wide fresh white muslin dresses, and puttingtheir hair out of order, just as it had been made sonice and smooth. Nurse did really feel very angry;to her great relief, the schoolroom bell rang sharpand loud, and a message came to say the young ladieswere to go down immediately. Down they ran-helter-skelter-and nurse was left in peace, to putthe untidy room tidy, and to get herself ready forsupper in the housekeeper's room. This supper, anda little warm negus, and a good chat with all theladies' maids who were there, quite restored nurse'sgood temper, and when the children came up to bed,about half-past nine, she was kind as ever to them;

78 ROSE AND KATE.they were so tired, and so tiresome in consequence,that it was a very good thing nurse had recovered hertemper, or they would have been all cross together;and that would have been a sad business. By teno'clock they were fast asleep in their several beds-Lucy and Edith in one room, Rosie and Kate inanother-and nurse close by to watch over them all.

THE PONY CARRIAGE. 79CHAPTER VL.THE next day Mr. Howard came into the dining-room when the children were at dinner, and theelder members of the family at luncheon. It was avery unusual thing to see him in the house at thathour, for he never took luncheon; but this day hecame on purpose to tell Miss Jones that he hadordered the pony-carriage to be at the door exactly attwo o'clock, and that he wished her to take the chil-dren to a distant part of the parish, and there giveaway some soup and coal tickets. He said, " It is themost lovely day for the 10th of December I ever re-member to have seen; but you must be off by two,because the days are so short, and you have a goodway to go and a good deal to do. I want you to callat those four cottages not far from the sand-pits, andtell them I mean them all to have some Christmasbeef. You are not afraid of driving the pony alone,are you, Miss Jones "" Oh, no, sir I am so used to the dear little pony,"answered Miss Jones, " but I am afraid I shall not beable to take the four girls-three will be all the car-riage will hold.""Oh, I forgot that !" said Mr. Howard. "Well,then, this is what we must do-one child must remain

80 ROSE AND KATE.behind, and be promoted to the honour of a walk withpapa and Sue-which is it to be ?"The children all exclaimed together that they eachwished to go in the carriage." But you can't all go in the carriage, dears " saidpapa. "One of you must stay behind and be con-demned to walk with papa. Which is it to be, I askyou again l "No answer."Why, what dreadful silence!" he continued;"suppose we settle the question in this way-youshall draw lots, and the one that gets the shortestshall be the one to walk with Sue and me."" Yes, let us do that! " cried the little ones.The lots were made ready-Aunt Emma held themin her hand, and one by one the children drew-andwho do you think got the shortest ? Not Lucy, forhers was certainly the longest; not Edith, for herswas quite long, too; not Rosie, for hers was longerthan Katie's. So Katie was the one who was to stayat home and walk with papa. She looked ratherdown, and as though she would cry, but Aunt Emmaseeing this, said so merrily, "Oh, what a fortunatelittle girl! I had rather have one walk with papathan many a drive in the pony-carriage. I am so gladKatie is to have this treat."Then papa kissed Katie, and said, "Are you sadlydistressed to be papa's little companion for the after-noon? ""No, papa, I am not so very, very sorry, only itwould have been nice, you know, to have gone with

WHAT CAN HAVE HAPPENED t 81the others in the pony carriage; but I don't mindso very much.""I am glad of that, my pet!" said Mr. Howard,"but now I want you all to make haste and get yourthings on; you have no time to lose, and here comesthe pony-carriage." In a few minutes the little onescame down ready for their drive; Mr. Howard packedthe three who were to go with Miss Jones into thecarriage, and then he, with Susan and Kate, startedfor their walk. They went a long way, and left agreat many packets of tea and sugar for the old womenon the estate, and Katie got so tired, that her papacarried her part of the way home. It was dark beforethey reached the house, and then the first questionMr. Howard asked was, "Is the pony-carriage comeback 1" " No, sir, not yet " was the answer.Katie went upstairs to nurse, and Mr. Howardwent into his own room; he had some rather importantletters to write, and was so engrossed by these lettersthat he never remembered how late it was getting, andthat the pony-carriage was not yet come back, till hereceived a message from Aunt Emma, asking him tocome and speak to her. He went, and found nursein Aunt Emma's room, evidently very uneasy, andAunt Emma looking pale and anxious. "The chil-dren are not yet returned, sir " said nurse, "and ithas been dark this hour and a half.""Can anything have happened, Edmund, do youthink? " said Aunt Emma; " which way were they to"go ?""Whichever way they went, they ought to haveG

82 ROSE AND KATE.been home long ago," said Mr. Howard. " Do youmean to say that it is really half-past six ?"" Indeed it is, sir !" said nurse, bursting into tears."What shall we do, sir ? those precious little lambs;I hope they be all safe."Mr. Howard rang the bell. When the servant came,he was told to have the brougham brought round asquickly as possible. "I will go and see after them;I think they must come by the high road home; Ican't fancy Miss Jones would have attempted thesand-pit lane. But hark I hear wheels. Hush!Katie, be quiet, and let us listen. No; those are notcarriage-wheels; they are the wheels of some cartgoing to the farm-house. The carriage will be readyin ten minutes or so, and we must trust and hope thatnothing is amiss in the meantime."And now, whilst they are waiting in this state ofsuspense, we will see what had really happened to thechildren and Miss Jones in the pony-carriage. Theystarted off, all in high spirits, pony included, and hada very pleasant drive across the common, and quite tothe farthest end of the parish, where there was a smallsecluded hamlet, consisting of about a dozen houses:it was at these houses that the children were commis-sioned to leave thd soup and coal tickets, and to tellabout the Christmas beef. All this they had done,but it took some time longer than Miss Jones had cal-culated upon. There was the getting in and out of thecarriage; then the giving the different messages; thenthe tucking up to keep out the cold; so that, beforethey started homeward, it was beginning to get dark.

THE DOG FRIGHTENS THE PONY. 83There was one more cottage still to be called at, andthen the day's work would be done; and as this cot-tage was on their way home, Miss Jones said theymight go there, provided the little messengers wouldbe content to stop at the gate, and not again to getout. They promised that they would be content todo this, and so Miss Jones drove straight there. Theyhad just reached the cottage door when a carriagepassed them; it was their doctor's carriage, Dr.Birch, and in it with him was the clergyman of theparish, Mr. Neville. They stopped and spoke to thechildren for a minute, and Dr. Birch said, "Youought to make the best of your way home now, it isgetting cold !" and then he and Mr. Neville drove on.They had not been gone a minute before two boys onhorseback came tearing by, and with them a huge dogof the St. Bernard breed. This dog jumped up at thepony's nose, and barked in its face furiously, frighten-ing the children out of their wits, and the pony too,out of its wits, for off the pony set, tearing down thelane which led straight to the sand-pits. Miss Jonescould not guide it-she could not check it; she heldthe reins as tight as she could, and pulled with all hermight, but the excited and frightened pony was fartoo much for her-all she could do, she did, and allshe could say, in a voice of agony, to the children was," Sit still, I entreat you-your lives depend upon it."And they did sit very still. On and on the mad littlepony went, every step was taking them nearer to thesand-pits, which were nearly ten feet deep. Dr. Birchand Mr. Neville were near enough, when the ponyG 2

84 ROSE AND KATE.started off, to hear the rate at which it went, and onthe wrong road too-on the dangerous road, which ledto the sand-pits; they suspected instantly what hadhappened, turned their carriage round, and followedthe runaway pony as quickly as they could. On andon the pony went; Miss Jones knew they must beclose upon the sand-pits, but she could do nothing,when down fell the pony, and over went the carriage,and out fell Miss Jones with Lucy on the top of herin front, and Edith and Rosie over each other behind.For a moment no one spoke-then Lucy began toscream, and to say, "I am killed! I am killed!Oh, dear, what shall I do?" Lucy's voice rousedRosie, who got up and said, "Lucy, dear, where areyou ?" "Here, Rosie," answered Lucy, "come tome-I am killed !" "No, no my little maiden," saida cheerful voice, in reply, "you are not killed! letme lift you up and see what is really the matter."And here Dr. Birch-for it was he-lifted Lucy up;she screamed dreadfully, and cried out, " Oh, my leg !my leg!" which made him fear that the leg might bebroken; but it was too dark to see, and the confusionwas very great. In the meantime, Mr. Neville hadbeen quieting Rosie and Edith, both of whom weresobbing, and terrified, and bleeding; but he soon sawthat no serious harm was done, and he took them bothin his arms and placed them in Dr. Birch's carriage.He then went to the doctor's assistance, and by hisdesire lifted Lucy very carefully up, and placed heralso in the carriage, laying her wounded leg uponthe seat.

" 01, MY LEG! MY LEG! " 85"Now," said the doctor, "take them quietly to myhouse, and give them into my wife's care, and thencome back in the carriage as quickly as possible. Iam afraid poor Miss Jones is really hurt-she hasneither stirred nor spoken since it happened; but Idon't want the children to know anything about this-they are frightened enough as it is. Don't be long,my good fellow send for my son to see Lucy themoment you get them into the house."Mr. Neville followed the doctor's injunctions-hetook the children very gently to Dr. Birch's house,which was but a short way off. At every jolt of thecarriage Lucy screamed out, " Oh, my leg oh, myleg! What shall I do what shall I do ?" And herscreams made the other two cry. Edith exclaimed,"I am covered with blood-I am bleeding to death;I am sure I am ""Never mind, Edith dear-be a little brave girl,and show us how well you can bear a few bleedingcuts " said Mr. Neville. "Lucy has got much worsepain to bear."Rosie kept very still and quiet; now and thena little sob escaped from her, and by-and-by camethe question, " Where's Miss Jones, Mr. Neville-where is she 1 Why has she left us "" She is killed !" said Lucy. "I saw her lyingquite white and stiff.""She is not killed-I am sure she is not!" thensaid Rosie, sobbing as though her heart would break."Is she killed, Mr. Neville 1 "" I think she is hurt, dear Rosie, but not killed.

86 ROSE AND KATE.Dr. Birch is taking care of her, and, please God, wehope she will soon be better."By this time they had arrived at the door of thehouse. Mr. Neville lifted Edith and Rosie out first,sent for Mrs. Birch and for her son, then took Lucyout as gently as he would and placed her on the sofain the dining-room. The pain was really very great,and poor little Lucy fainted. Happily, Mrs. Birch,seeing the state of the other two little girls, and thatthey were covered with blood and dirt, had takenthem straight upstairs to wash them, and see whatwas really the matter, so that they did not see Lucyfaint away, which would have frightened them terri-bly, and made them think that she was dead. YoungMr. Birch, who was a surgeon, was with her, anddoing all he could for her, and so Mrs. Birch stayedwith Edith and Rose. She washed their faces, andtook off their soiled and crumpled cloaks and hats, and"then she found that Edith had rather a deep cut onthe chin, which had caused the bleeding, and a fewbruises on her arm; but that was all. Rosie had agash on her leg, and bruises, too, about her body, butnothing serious-nothing that would not be quitewell in a few days. Mrs. Birch, when she had ascer-tained all this, and had made them both clean andcomfortable, sent for her daughter Mary, and told herto get the little girls some tea; and some nice hot toastand butter, and to keep them amused and upstairs tillDr. Birch came home. Then good, kind, motherlyMrs. Birch went downstairs into the dining-room tosee how poor Lucy was getting on. Her son was

LUCY'S ANKLE IS DISLOCATED. 87bathing her temples with water, and soothing her inevery way that he could. He whispered to hismother, " The ankle is dislocated, and the thigh is agood deal bruised; she can't be taken home to-night;we must get her into bed, and that at once, as thesooner her ankle is set the better. Try if she willdrink a little tea."Away went Mrs. Birch and ordered a bed to be gotready directly for Miss Lucy, and another for MissJones, should it be wanted, as she very much fearedthat it would; and then she took a cup of tea withher, and went back into the dining-room." Shall we send for Mr. Howard I " asked her son;"he must be getting very anxious.""We will wait till your father and Mr. Nevillecome back; they will be here soon."And so they were ; for in one minute from thattime the carriage came slowly, slowly, up to the hall-door. Young Mr. Birch went out to give what helphe could, and he saw poor Miss Jones lifted in by hisfather and Mr. Neville, and carried upstairs and laidon the bed which had been got ready for her."Concussion of the brain and a broken arm!"whispered Dr. Birch to his son. "How are thechildren "" Lucy is bad--dislocated ankle and great pain ; theother two not much hurt-they are in mother'sroom.""I will see them at once before I go to Lucy. Gether into bed, my boy, and then we will attend to theankle."

88 ROSE AND KATE.So the son went to help his mother with Lucy, andthe father went to see the other two little girls. Heentered the room, and in his most cheerful voice said,"Well, little ladies, and how are the bruises, and thepains, and the aches ? Come and tell me all aboutthem.""Look at my chin and my arm! " said Edith, whowas very sorry for herself and her wounds.The doctor looked, and soon satisfied himself thatthere was not much amiss, either with her or withRosie. " There is very little the matter with either ofyou, and you ought to be very thankful to God forhaving taken care of you. Now, will you go homelike good children, and tell papa that Dr. Birch saysyou are only hurt a very little bit, but that Lucy'sleg is badly hurt, and she must stay quietly here forto-night; and that Miss Jones is so much injured,that she must stay here for to-night. Tell nurse toput you both to bed as fast as she can after she hasgiven you a warm bath, and not to let you get up to-morrow morning to breakfast, nor till I have seenyou. Can you remember this long message, littleones, do you think ?""Yes, we can; but who will take us home andtake care of us ? I wish I was with my own mamma,"said Edith, beginning to cry, "she would take careof me."" Come, Miss Edith, come, wipe away those tears-supposing I was to send Mary to take care of you,would you be pleased ?"

ROSE AND EDITH SENT HOMI0 89"Yes, we should*like Mary to come with us," saidboth the children.Then said Dr. Birch, "Mary, put your hat andshawl on at once, and put the little ones' things on,and start without any delay-the carriage is at thedoor."So saying, the doctor went away and found Mr.Neville, and asked him to go also in the carriage withhis daughter and the children up to the Hall, and to seeMr. Howard, and tell him how matters really wereboth with Lucy and Miss Jones; "And then," headded, " will you see the Campbells-the accident willsoon be known and noised abroad, and made muchworse of than it really is, and it won't do to leavethat poor father and mother in suspense.""Oh, no !" said Mr. Neville, "I had fully intendedgoing to the Campbells.""Well, at last, Rose and Edith were got off, and Dr.Birch went into Lucy's room-the ankle was set andbound up, and the hip and thigh were bathed, andyoung Mr. Birch sat down by her bed-side to watchover her, and set his father free to attend upon MissJones. Dr. Birch had sent off for another doctor be-fore he attempted to do much for Miss Jones, and hewas anxiously awaiting his arrival. He came verysoon after Lucy's ankle had been set, and Dr. Birchtook him first into her room, and he thought a fewleeches on the hip would be advisable, so Mrs. Birchwas left to do this, and then the two doctors went to-gether to see Miss Jones; and there we will leave

90 ROSE AND KATE.them, and see how the children in the carriagegot on.Mary Birch took Edith in her arms, and talkedcheerfully to her, and the tired, exhausted child wentoff to sleep. Mr. Neville lifted Rosie up on his knee,and her little head began soon to nod, and she too wasasleep; and in this way they went on till they cameto the Hall, and arrived there at the very momentthat Mr. Howard was stepping into the brougham togo and see what could have become of them. Thecarriage drove up-the door of it was opened by Mr.Howard himself, who could scarcely speak for agita-tion. His eye rested on Mr. Neville, and he exclaimed,"What has happened, Neville ? tell me the worst "Mr. Neville only put his finger on his mouth, andsaid, "Let these little ones be taken upstairs first."Mr. Howard took Rosie out of his arms, andcovered her with kisses, though the tears stood in hiseyes as he saw her pale face, and bandaged arm, andrumpled clothes.. "You see the worst," said Mr.Neville; "she is not really hurt." Then Mary Birchwas helped out of the carriage, still holding Edith,who was fast asleep. Nurse burst into tears andsobbed aloud when she saw the two little ones broughtback in this wounded way. Aunt Emma couldscarcely refrain from crying too, nor Susan either.Every servant in the house was by this time assem-bled in the hall, for a panic had seized them all-they felt sure that something serious had befallenthe children." Take them up at once to bed, and I will tell you

MR. HOWARD GOES TO SEE DR. BIRCH. 91all when you come down, Howard," said his friend,Mr. Neville, " there is more behind."-" So I perceive," answered Mr. Howard; and, with-out another word he carried Rosie up to the nursery.Nurse followed with Edith, and Mary Birch andAunt Emma came last; then Mary told Mr. Howardexactly what her father had said about these two chil-dren, and how he wished them to have a warm bath,and remain in bed quietly till he came next day.Rosio was by this time quite awake, and she said," Papa, Lucy says she is killed-and Miss Jones iskilled."Papa turned very pale as he heard this, and looked.at Mary Birch; so also did Aunt Emma, Susan, andnurse."L No, dear Rosie," said Mary Birch, "Lucy is notkilled, but her leg is hurt; and Miss Jones is notkilled either, but only hurt."Mr. Howard did not wait to hear more, but randownstairs to learn all particulars of Mr. Neville.He was quickly followed by Aunt Emma. When allhad been told and the worst clearly understood, Mr.Howard said he would go at once to Dr. Birch'shouse, and see what could be done both for Lucy andMiss Jones, and requested Mr. Neville to make thebest of his way to the Campbells. But, before hestarted, he ran up to the nursery-he put his armsround his precious little Rosie, and kissed her againand again, and then he knelt down by her bed-side.and thanked God for having preserved her when she"was in such great danger. He did not forget Edith

92 ROSE AND KATE.either, but crept quietly into the room where sheslept, and saw that she was lying quite peaceful andcomposed, with her eyes shut, and having kissed herlovingly, he called Mary Birch and went downstairs.He and Mary then started off together. Aunt Emmawanted very much to go with them, but Mary saidthat ib was really unnecessary-that there were hermother and father, her brother and herself, and thatnone of them would go to bed that night, as they wereall strong and able to sit up, which Aunt Emma cer-tainly was not. So Aunt Emma yielded, knowingthat very often in sickness and trouble there is asmuch kindness in keeping away, when one is notreally wanted, as in going to help; and Aunt Emmaalways tried to think what ought to be done, and notwhat she would wish to do; but she did this soquietly and reservedly that few knew how much sheoften gave up. When Mr. Howard and Mary Bircharrived at the doctor's house, they found that Lucywas settled for the night-the leeches had relieved thepain, and Mrs. Birch was going to sit up with her, atleast till her own mother came. Miss Jones was stillin a very critical state; both the doctors were in herroom, but Dr. Birch came down to see Mr. Howard,to tell him exactly what he thought of her, andalso of Lucy, and the two little ones now safely athome and in bed. Then he returned to Miss Jones'sroom, and Mr. Howard waited for the arrival of theCampbells. It was fully nine o'clock before they came.Poor Mrs. Campbell was very pale and greatly dis-tressed. Mr. Howard comforted her a little by telling

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE. 93her how quiet and peaceful little Edith looked lyingasleep in her bed, and that really there was not muchamiss with the child, though she was somewhat dis-figured. He expressed his deep concern for Lucy'ssuffering, and that he should have been in some mea-sure the cause of it; but the Dean and Mrs. Camp-bell would hot hear of any blame being attached toanybody. "Accidents are what we are all liable toin this world," said Dean Campbell, " and what God,for some good reason, means us to be liable to." Itwas settled that the Campbells should remain at Dr.Birch's that night, and come over as early as theycould the next day to see Edith. Mr. Howard thenwent home, and found Aunt Emma impatiently wait-ing for him, and longing to know exactly how thingsreally were with Miss Jones and with Lucy. He toldher everything, and that there was great cause foranxiety about Miss Jones, and some slight fear lestLucy should be lame for life. They sat up for a longtime talking over all that had happened, and howmuch worse it might have been, had the pony dasheddown into the sand-pits, instead of falling as it did;also what a blessing it had been that Dr. Birch and Mr.Neville had heard the pony set off, and had been nearenough to give immediate help; "for what would orcould those poor little ones have done in the dark, allmore or less hurt, with Miss Jones lying insensible,had they been left to themselves " So ended Mr.Howard's talk that night with Aunt Emma-and soends this chapter of accidents.